Space guidance and management system and method

ABSTRACT

A guidance system for helping users locate specific affordance configurations for use within an enterprise space, the system comprising a stationary display field located within the enterprise space, the display field controlled to present guidance information to a system user, a database storing affordance configuration schedules and user schedules, a processor programmed to automatically perform the steps of obtaining location information for a set of users within the enterprise space, for at least a first user proximate the display field, examining the first user&#39;s schedule information to identify locations of activities scheduled for the first user within a threshold period of time, identifying at least one affordance configuration within the enterprise space that is proximate the locations of the activities scheduled for the first user within the threshold period of time and automatically presenting the identified at least one affordance configuration via the display field as a suggestion to the first user while the first user is proximate the display field.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/170,550 filed on Jun. 1, 2016, and which is entitled “SPACE GUIDANCEAND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD,” which claims priority to U.S.provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/328,339 which was filed Apr.27, 2016 and which is entitled “SPACE GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ANDMETHOD”; and also claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/171,401 which was filed on Jun. 5, 2015 and which is titled“Space Guidance And Management System And Method” and also claimspriority to, and is a continuation-in-part of, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/871,097 which was filed on Sep. 30, 2015 and which is titled“Method And System For Locating Resources And Communicating Within AnEnterprise” which further claims priority to U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/059,602 which was filed on Oct. 3, 2014 andwhich is also titled “Method And System For Locating Resources AndCommunicating Within An Enterprise”, each of which is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/170,550 also claims priority to, andis a continuation-in-part of, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/730,996 which was filed on Jun. 4, 2015 and which is titled“Environment Optimization For Space Based On Presence And Activities”which claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 62/008,283which was filed on Jun. 5, 2014 and which also is titled “EnvironmentOptimization For Space Based On Presence And Activities”, each of whichis also incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The field of the invention is space management technology andarchitecture for distinguishing physical spaces and helping people takeoptimal advantage of affordances within a generally open office plan.

Many companies employ open office plans for use by many and in somecases substantially all of their employees where each employee isassigned to a workstation generally located within a large ambient space(e.g., a portion of a floor within a building) within a facility. Oneprimary advantage often associated with open office plans is costsavings. To this end, an open plan necessarily means that fewerarchitectural walls are constructed within the large ambient space andtherefore costs associated with such walls are avoided. In addition, theamount of space required to provide workstations in an open office planis usually less than cases where architectural walls divide eachemployee's space from the larger ambient space and therefore an openplan can reduce costs associated with space. This is because walledspaces tend to feel claustrophobic when compared to open office spacesand therefore when full walls are provided, larger spaces are generallyrequired.

Another advantage associated with open office environments is thatpeople tend to communicate and therefore collaborate more readily inopen environments when compared to how they interact where individualspaces are physically separated by full wall structures. To this end, inan open environment, employees are more aware of who is present in aspace, who is available in a space, what other employees are working on,etc., and therefore, are more likely to participate in impromptumeetings or short collaborations that can impact effectivenessappreciably.

Yet one other advantage often associated with open office plans is thatthe affordances required to provide individual workstations within suchplans are relatively easy and inexpensive to reconfigure when differentstation juxtapositions are considered advantageous for some reason. Forinstance, where three additional workstations are required for threeadditional employees, a set of 22 existing workstations may berearranged in a space to make space for the three additionalworkstations.

While totally open environments have been adopted in some facilities, inmany facilities, while the open office plan is employed, at least somepartial dividing walls and/or screen assemblies are provided so thatemployees have at least a minimal sense of privacy at theirworkstations. For instance, the office furniture industry has providedframe based partial wall structures for decades that include walls todivide one workstation from another so that the view of a first employeein a first station is at least obstructed into adjacent stations whenthe first employee is seated in the first station and so that the viewsof other employees in the adjacent stations are at least obstructed intothe first station when the other employees are seated. As anotherinstance, screen members are sometimes provided that at least partiallyblock viewing angles into workstations from adjacent stations toincrease the level or privacy.

In a further effort to reduce costs, many employers now have at leastsome if not most of their employees work from home or otherwise remotelyat least some of the time. In these cases, many employees still have tobe in employer facilities at least periodically if not often. For thisreason, many employers still provide workstations for employees, albeitfor temporary use when the employees are located in specific facilities.Unless indicated otherwise, the act of temporarily using a workstationlocated in an open office plan will be referred to hereinafter as“hotelling” and workstations provided for hotelling purposes will bereferred to as “hotelling stations”.

While open office plans like those described above and hotelling haveproven advantageous in many cases, open office plans and hotelling ingeneral have several shortcomings. First, many employees thattemporarily hotel in an open office space feel undervalued by theiremployers as their workstations are completely impersonal. In thisregard, hotelling stations often are not adjustable to accommodatedifferent employee preferences. For instance, a first employee mayprefer a thirty inch high worksurface, a display screen supported at afirst height, a first light intensity and a first ambient temperaturewhile a second employee prefers a standing height worksurface, a displayscreen supported at a second height, a second light intensity and asecond ambient temperature. In many cases, especially in open officeplans, there is no ability to adjust any of these environmentalparameters to personal preferences. In instances where parameters can beadjusted to personal preferences, in many cases those preferences arenever adjusted by employees either because an employee does notunderstand how to adjust the preferences or because parameter adjustmentis just too burdensome. As another instance, known hotelling stationsare not decorated or otherwise customized to specific employeepreferences. For instance, a first employee may love nature and preferto immerse himself in a space that includes images of nature while asecond employee has three kids and would prefer to have images of thosekids in her peripheral view.

Second, many employees at open plan hotelling stations act as if theyare in separately enclosed offices and have impromptu meetings at theirtemporary stations as opposed to going to a private conference roomwhere their meetings will not interrupt other employees proximate theirstations. Sound from these impromptu meetings often travelssubstantially unimpeded within an open office environment and canadversely affect other employee's concentration. This is particularlytrue in cases where employees are sharing and discussing digital contenton a computer display screen or the like where discussion is oftennecessary.

Third, in many cases employees passing by other employees atworkstations in open spaces assume or at least act as if it isacceptable to stop by and start a conversation with the employees at thestations. These types of interruptions are often unwanted but thedisrupted employees often feel uncomfortable shutting down a fellowemployee that initiates the communication. The end result is that workefficiency is appreciably reduced.

Fourth, some activities simply require greater privacy than afforded atan open space hotelling station. For example, where a first employeeneeds to participate in a telepresence session via the employee's laptopor the like with a remote employee to discuss employee performancereview, the information discussed will often be of a personal andprivate nature. In these cases, an open space station is insufficient tomeet employee needs.

Fifth, where teleconferencing is to take place, most open spacehotelling stations are not optimally equipped to facilitatetelepresence. For instance, most hotelling stations do not haveoptimized lighting, sound or even optimized high definition imagingequipment (e.g., a high definition camera) and/or the arrangement ofsuch equipment is not optimized for use with the other stationaffordances as telepresence is usually only a secondary featureassociated with the station. In addition, many enterprises choose not toprovide telepresence cameras and other equipment at hotelling stationsbecause such equipment is cost prohibitive and so that employees are notencouraged to participate in telepresence sessions at their stationswhich routinely disturb other employees in the general area.

Sixth, while all open space hotelling stations in a facility may havesimilar configurations and may operate in similar fashions, not allstations will be “equal” when it comes to the environmentalcharacteristics associated with each space which are often verydifferent at different locations within a larger space. To this end,consider first and second different hotelling stations located in asingle large open space where the first station is located in a farcorner of the large open space and the second station is located justoutside a restroom and proximate a coffee station. In this example, itcan be expected that noise proximate the first station will besubstantially less than the noise expected proximate the second station.Similarly, it can be expected that foot traffic proximate the firststation will be relatively less than the foot traffic proximate thesecond station. As another example, consider a case where a firststation is proximate a large exterior window of a large open space and asecond station is centrally located within the large space and isdistant from any exterior windows. In this case, it can be expected thatthere will be substantially more natural light proximate the firststation that proximate the second station. Where an employee does notroutinely hotel in a specific facility, the employee would blindlyselect a hotelling space which, in many cases, would have environmentalcharacteristics that are not optimized for the employee's preferences.

Seventh, in many cases an employee may prefer to be located in an openspace in some relative juxtaposition to other hotelling employees in thespace or in adjacent spaces. For instance, in some cases a firstemployee that is on a specific team of employees handling a project maywant to spend a day in relative seclusion to facilitate individualfocused work activities and therefore may want to be stationed at ahotelling station that is remote from other employees on the team. Incontrast, a second employee may want to be located proximate otheremployees on the team so that collaborative activity may be facilitated.In each of these cases and in other cases where a first employee wantsto work in a hotelling space that is relatively juxtaposed to otheremployees on a team or, for that matter, other employees in general, theonly known solution is for the first employee to walk around in thespace and visually search for the locations of other employees and toselect a hotelling space based on her visual investigation.

Eighth, all other things being equal, most employees would like to belocated at a convenient location to the locations of other resourceswithin a space that the employee will use. Most importantly, in manycases, employees like hotelling spaces that are proximate the locationsof other resources that the employees are scheduled to use during agiven day such as, for instance, conference or meting spaces. Thus,where a first employee is scheduled to attend three meetings during aday that are to take place in three adjacent conference rooms, it ishighly likely the first employee would like to use a hotelling spacethat is proximate the three conference rooms as opposed to on the otherside of a large facility. No known existing system allows an employee toidentify an optimal hotelling space based on proximity to otherscheduled resources.

To deal with at least some of the problems described above, in mostcases where hotelling workstations are provided in an open plan, atleast some space in the open plan is still divided from the larger spacevia architectural wall structures for private meetings between groups orteams of employees. Thus, for instance, in a space that includes 100individual workstations, six full walled conference spaces may beprovided including three spaces sized for up to ten employees and threespaces sized for up to four employees each. Hereinafter, unlessindicated otherwise, a full walled conference space will be referred toas a conference room. Employees may have no choice but to move toconference rooms to hold meetings, to share digital content in anamplified format, to facilitate teleconference activities, or whenadditional privacy is required by an employee that wants to facilitateindividual focused work.

Even in cases where one or more employees use a conference room tofacilitate activities, the rooms are not optimized for such activities.For instance, lighting in a large conference room typically includesarea lighting as opposed to task lighting required for optimizedindividual focused work activities. In addition, area lighting oftencannot be adjusted in color, intensity, etc., to meet a user'spreferences and many conference rooms have area sound systems that arenot optimized for individual use or appreciation. Similarly, largespaces like a conference room typically are not equipped with subspaceenvironmental controls for heating, air circulation, etc. Moreover, manyemployees that have worked alone in a large conference room designed forseveral employees have a sense of being swallowed up in the space asopposed to “fitting” well within the room.

Even in cases where conference rooms are provided in open office spaces,there are often several barriers to use. First, in the case of ahotelling arrangement, a hotelling employee unfamiliar with a largefacility space may not know the locations of conference spaces and maynot care to spend the time and effort to figure out the locations.Second, even when an employee knows the locations of conference rooms ina space, many times the conference rooms most closely located to anemployee's hotelling station will be booked when the employee would liketo use resources therein and therefore, to use a different conferenceroom, the employee would have to travel an extended distance which theemployee may not be willing to do. Third, many activities may only haveshort time durations and an employee may think it is not worth theeffort to access conference room resources for such a short time eventhough those resources would appreciably increase the value of theactivity. For instance, a first employee may want to share a set of tenimages with a second employee to discuss a new product line and it maybe useful to view and discuss those images in an amplified format. Thefirst employee may not want to go through the trouble of reserving aconference space for the few minutes required to share the images.Fourth, in many cases where amplification or telepresence resources areprovided in conference rooms, those resources are not easy to boot uprequiring a series of steps by an employee. Exacerbating matters, manyfacilities or enterprises include more than one type of amplification ortelepresence system and employees are often times intimidated by thethought of trying to boot up a system that they are unfamiliar with,especially if the system is only required for a short duration. Fifth,many employees are under the impression that the affordances andexpenses associated with conference rooms should only be utilized forlarge group meetings or particularly important activities.

The barriers to use described above typically result in anunderutilization of conference space resources even though thoseresources could facilitate and enhance many employee activities. Insteadof using conference space resources when it would be advantageous,employees routinely opt for poor substitutes and simply “make do” withthe resources at their hotelling stations. For instance, instead ofusing a telepresence system in a conference space to facilitate adiscussion with a remote employee, a local employee may simply use aphone. As another instance, instead of sharing digital content with aremote employee directly, a local employee may have a remote employeelink to a copy of a document and each may have to flip through theirinstance of the document simultaneously to view the same content. Asanother instance, instead of first and second employees amplifyingcontent to share and collaborate, the first and second employees mayhuddle around a laptop display screen to view the content. As still oneother example, instead of using a space with substantial visual blockingstructure to facilitate individual focused work, an employee may opt touse a hotelling station that does not include such affordances.

Thus, what is needed is a space management system that can help peopleefficiently select and use optimal space affordances within unfamiliarenterprise spaces where optimal means, effectively, consistent with anemployee's current preference set in terms of activities to beperformed, location relative to various scheduled and unscheduledresources, environmental characteristics associated with affordancelocations, locations of specific other employees and/or employeesgenerally, or any combination of the above or other preferences. What isalso needed is a system that can help guide employees within unfamiliarenterprise spaces to affordances to be used by the employees as well asa system that softly or quietly encourages good open space plan use byall employees. What is further needed is a system that automaticallycustomizes hotelling stations and other space affordance configurationsgiven preferences of employees using spaces as well as informationrelated to activities to be performed in those spaces and thatautomatically adjusts space affordance settings to optimal values forsupporting different types of activities. It would be advantageous if asystem with the attributes described here could be implementedsubstantially automatically, requiring only minimal if any actions onthe part of an employee to take advantage of the affordance attributes.

What is also needed is an overall space layout that provides a set ofdifferent affordance configurations including a separate affordance typefor each of several different types of activities that typical employeesengage in throughout the course of a day. Here, instead of trying tosupport many employee needs via a one size fits all workstation, severaldifferent affordance configurations should be provided where each one isoptimized for a small set of specific activity types and employeesshould move about from configuration to configuration when differentactivities are to be performed. Again, transition from one configurationto another should be quick and simple and should require minimal if anyactions on the part of an employee in addition to traveling from oneconfiguration to the next.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Recognizing that different activities can be optimally supported bydifferent affordance characteristics, several different affordanceconfigurations have been developed, one for each of the differenttypical types of employee activities. In the exemplary embodimentdescribed in this disclosure, seven different affordance configurationshave been developed to meet the needs of a typical set of employees in agenerally open office space including a reception configuration, a caféconfiguration, a personal bench configuration, a focus stationconfiguration, a content amplification kiosk configuration, an enhancedprivacy configuration and a team studio configuration. The receptionconfiguration is optimized to greet employees as they arrive within afacility space and the café configuration is optimized to help arrivingemployees transition into the space both physically and psychologicallywhile the other five configurations are designed to optimally supportdifferent types of work activities. The personal bench configuration isdesigned to operate as a sort of day long (or generally long period)base station for use by an employee when the employee is not using oneof the focus stations, amplification kiosks, enhanced privacyconfigurations or team studios to perform some specialized activity. Thefocus station is optimized to facilitate individual highly focused workwhen visual and audio distractions need to be minimized but totalprivacy is not necessary. The amplification kiosk is optimized tofacilitate content amplification and sharing among small groups ofemployees as well as to facilitate telepresence sessions when completeprivacy is not required. The enhanced privacy configuration is optimizedfor content amplification, to enable telepresence sessions, for sharingcontent remotely and for individual focused work and can be controlledto dial privacy up to a completely private level and down to suit anemployee's needs at different times. The team studio configuration isoptimized for use by mid-sized teams of employees (e.g., up to 8 or 12)that need to share and develop content both locally and with remote teammembers and, in at least some cases, can be controlled to dial privacylevel up or down depending on circumstances.

In particularly advantageous embodiments systems have been designed thatmake it particularly easy for employees to find optimized affordanceswithin a large facility space in at least two ways. First, instances ofeach of the seven affordance configurations are peppered throughout afacility space so that they are proximately and quickly accessible toemployees at any locations within the larger space. Here,advantageously, because many of the affordance configurations are onlyoptimized for relatively specific activities, superfluous affordancesthat are rarely used at those configurations can be eliminated andtherefore the costs associated with each of the configurations can beminimized. Thus, for instance, in the case of one of the amplificationkiosks, because total privacy is not required, the expense associatedwith a full walled conference space is avoided. Here, the cost savingsin privacy walls can be used to equip a space with additionalamplification kiosks which means that kiosks can be placed at morelocations in a large space and hence proximate more employees for easyaccess. Similarly, a relatively large number of focus stations can belocated at different locations within a large space to increase thelevel of access thereto by employees.

Second, in at least some embodiments a guidance system is provided tohelp employees locate resources that are optimized for specificactivities and based on employee preferences, habits, etc. In general, adatabase is provided that includes facility resource maps and that canbe populated with information about different affordance configurationswithin the space that is useful in suggesting different configurationsfor use by different employees. The database may, in some cases, alsoinclude configuration or space schedules, employee schedule informationand a set of employee preferences. While an employee is located in thefacility space, in at least some cases, the employee's location and thelocations of other employees are tracked. A system server uses thedatabase information to make resource suggestions to the employee withinthe space. For instance, when an employee first arrives in a space, thesystem server may, based on the employee's identity, preferences andother factors, identify one or more personal benches to suggest to theemployee as a base station for use while in the larger space and mayissue the suggestion via a reception configuration. As another instance,while an employee is working at her personal bench, the server may issuea warning via a screen or other indicator device at the bench indicatingthat the employee has a meeting in 10 minutes in Team Studio 2 and thatit will take the employee 5 minutes to travel from her current locationto Team Studio 2. In addition to issuing suggestions and warningsrelated to affordances and schedules, the server may also indicatelocations of suggested configurations or locations of resources that theemployee is scheduled to use as well as suggested paths to thoseresources on a facility map to expedite the employee's travel from oneconfiguration to the next.

In addition, in at least some embodiments it is contemplated that when asystem server suggests a resource at a specific location, the server maycontinue to track employee location in a facility space and continue toguide the employee to the suggested location. To this end, in some casesvisual guidance indicators may be presented throughout a space andguidance may entail assigning a specific symbol or indicator to each ofemployee being guided in a space and presenting a string of thosesymbols or indicators along a path through the space to the location ofa target resource. For example, where a server suggests a personal benchto an employee via a reception configuration, the server may assign thecolor pink as a guiding indicator to the employee. Here, the server maypresent a string of pink illuminated indicators along a path throughspace to the suggested bench.

In at least some embodiments screens and other visual indicators will beprovided throughout a space for other than guidance purposes which canbe used by a system server secondarily as visual guidance devices. Forinstance, where notification display screens are provided at personalbenches, each of those screens or portions thereof may be used topresent guidance signaling or indicators to traveling employees. In atleast some cases the server will only use bench or other affordanceconfiguration screens for guidance where the bench or otherconfiguration is not being used by an employee when possible. Thus, forinstance, where first and second benches are adjacent each other and anemployee is located at the first bench but no employee is at the secondbench, the server may only use the second bench screen for guidance sothat the guidance activity does not disturb the employee at the firstbench.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that, in addition toincluding affordance configurations that are optimized to facilitatespecific tasks, the configurations will be controlled in an automated orsemi-automated fashion to expedite the process of accessing thoseconfigurations and using the resources presented at thoseconfigurations. For instance, when a first employee is scheduled to useone of the enhanced privacy spaces to facilitate a telepresence sessionwith a second remote employee, the system server may identify atelepresence system that the second employee will be using in adifferent facility to participate in the session and may make aconnection between the telepresence systems to be used by the first andsecond employees automatically 5 minutes prior to the scheduledcommencement time of the session. As another instance, as an employeeapproaches an amplification kiosk, the server may recognize the identityof the approaching employee and may automatically perform some processto expedite the task of accessing the employee's digitally storedcontent to be shared via a large display screen at the kiosk. Forinstance, where the employee uses a laptop computer, the server maypresent a password on the kiosk screen and a password data entry fieldon the screen of the employee's laptop so that the employee can enterthe password in the field to associate the employee's computer with thekiosk screen for sharing a desktop image from the laptop. Similarly,when an employee moves away from the kiosk with her laptop, once theemployee is at least a threshold distance away from the kiosk, theserver may automatically disassociate the laptop with the kiosk to freeup the kiosk for use by other employees and to make sure that thedeparting employee's desktop image is no longer shared via the kioskscreen.

In at least some embodiments at least some of the affordanceconfigurations will include actuators useable by a system server tocontrol at least some configuration affordances to automatically changeaspects of the configurations to meet specific employee preferences. Forinstance, in at least some cases each personal bench configurationincludes a height adjustable main work surface or table top so that theheight of the surface can be adjusted to specific employee preferences.As another example, each bench configuration may include a task chairwith adjustable aspects where those aspects can be adjusted to meet userpreferences. Other adjustable bench characteristics are contemplated. Byproviding actuators for each adjustable characteristic at aconfiguration, a server may automatically adjust affordancecharacteristics for an employee prior to arrival of the employee at anassigned bench or other affordance configuration.

In addition to adjusting configuration characteristics to meet employeepreferences, in at least some cases where an emissive surface or screenis included in a configuration, employee content may be used toautomatically personalize the configuration for a specific employee. Forinstance, where a first employee prefers nature scenes, the emissivesurface may be controlled to present images of natural settings andwhere a second employee prefers images of her children, the emissivesurface may be controlled to automatically present images of herchildren when she is present.

Moreover, where an emissive surface or screen is included in aconfiguration, in at least some cases a system server may greet anarriving employee in a way designed to make the employee feel welcomeand special upon arriving at the configuration. For instance, where anemployee arrives at an assigned bench, a welcoming salutation may bepresented via an emissive surface at the bench. Here, in addition towelcoming the arriving employee, the salutation can serve asconfirmation for the employee that the employee is at the right bench ina large open space.

In general it has been recognized that even seemingly identical orsubstantially identical affordance configurations are not, in use, equaland that employees are often ill-equipped to identify which of severalseemingly identical configurations best matches their preferences. Forinstance, first and second identical personal bench configurations maybe located in a quiet, low foot traffic area and in a relatively loudand high foot traffic area, respectively. Here, clearly, the first andsecond bench configurations are in different sub-environments which willrender the first more appealing to some employees than the second andthe second more appealing to some employees than the first. Many otherenvironmental characteristics or attributes are contemplated that mayaffect an employee's choice between different affordance configurationsincluding but not limited to intensity of lighting, lighting color,amount of natural light, temperature, air circulation, proximity toresources like restrooms, coffee stations, other types of affordanceconfigurations (e.g., specific team studios or enhanced privacy spaces,etc.) etc. In addition, proximity to moving resources like otheremployees generally, specific employees, employees on a specific team,the locations of configurations scheduled for specific meetings, etc.,may affect an employee's choice of affordance configurations and theserver may use any of these or any combination thereof to identify oneor more configurations to suggest to an employee.

It has also been recognized that a simple preference signaling systemmay be provided as part of at least some affordance configurations thatcan be used by employees to encourage preferred behavior by otheremployees without requiring possibly uncomfortable circumstances. Tothis end, in at least some embodiments a signaling system is providedwhere an employee can cause a “Do Not Disturb” indication to bepresented at a location on an affordance configuration that isobservable by other employees in the general area. Here, when the do notdisturb indication is presented, other employees are encouraged to avoiddisturbing the employee using the associated affordance configuration.Similarly, in some embodiments the signaling system may enable anemployee to cause a “Silence” or “Quiet” indication to be presented at ahighly visible location on a configuration for general viewing by otheremployees. Here, when the silence indication is presented, otheremployees are encouraged to minimize noise, conversations, etc., in thegeneral area of the associated affordance. In at least some cases wherea silence indication is presented, if a noise level in the area exceedssome threshold level, a server may automatically present a quietreminder in a highly visible location until the noise level dips belowthe threshold level.

In some cases some or all of the behavior guidance signaling may beautomated. For instance, in cases where a specific subarea of a largerspace is intended to be quiet, a silence signal may be automaticallypresented at each personal bench configuration. Similarly, when noiselevel in a quiet subarea exceeds a threshold level, a quiet silencereminder may be automatically presented until the noise level dropsbelow the threshold level.

While a single server may be used to control an entire space managementsystem as described herein, in other cases more than one server orprocessing system may be employed where the multiple systems cooperateto perform various tasks. For instance, one server or system may managean employee location tracking process to identify locations andidentities of employees in a facility space while another server orsystem controls employee guidance within the space based on the locationand identity information.

In some cases it is contemplated that each affordance configuration mayinclude its own processor for controlling actuators associated with theconfiguration and for interacting with employees moving about in afacility space under the overall control of one or more central orremotely located servers or other processors. Similarly, differentaffordances at each or a subset of the configurations may have its ownprocessor which is controlled by a central server or the like. Here,each affordance or configuration processor may be wirelessly orotherwise linked to an intranet, the internet or some other network suchas an enterprise LAN or WAN and may have a unique network addressuseable for communication with one or more central servers. The servermay be programmed to receive information from the processors and toprovide control signals and other information to the processors forperforming any of the functions, methods and processes describedhereafter.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that a system server mayobtain information from sensors located throughout enterprise space thatcan be used to determine environmental characteristics of differentareas in the larger space and more specifically the characteristics ofsubareas that are occupied by specific affordance configurations. Insome cases it is contemplated that the characteristics or attributes ofa subspace may change over the course of a typical day and therefore theattributes ascribed to different affordance configurations may be timeof day specific.

In at least some cases employees that use affordance configurations willbe able to provide feedback on their experience using theconfigurations. Data reflecting configuration feedback received byemployees can be used subsequently to fine tune recommendations forthose specific employees. In addition, data reflecting configurationfeedback from employees can be used when selecting specific affordanceconfigurations to suggest to other employees subsequently based onpreferences.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that a system server can beprogrammed to dynamically adjust assignments of personal benches toemployees based on employee preferences to change at least some aspectsof subarea environments in an open office space when needed. Forinstance, where team studios and enhanced privacy configurations arearranges generally to divide up a large open office space into first,second and third subspaces and 100 personal benches are divided intofirst, second and third subsets including forty, twenty and forty,respectively, as employees arrive at a reception configuration, a systemserver may suggest benches via a reception display screen in the firstspace and the third space to employees that prefer a quiet bench andemployees that are indifferent to the level of noise in the area of thebench they use, respectively. Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise,subspaces in a larger space to which employees are assigned where theemployees prefer a quiet environment will be referred to hereinafter as“quiet spaces” and other subspaces where employees are indifferent tothe level of noise in the space will be referred to as “loud spaces”. Attimes where the first subset of forty benches in the quiet space arefilling up faster than the third subset of forty benches, the server mayautomatically start assigning the 20 benches in the second subspace toadditional employees that prefer a bench in a quiet space. On the otherhand, at times where the third subset of forty benches in the loud spaceare filling up faster than the first subset of forty benches, the servermay automatically start assigning the 20 benches in the second subspaceto additional employees that prefer a bench in a loud subspace. Thus, inthis example, the server is programmed to dynamically assigncharacteristics of the second subspace to render that space either quietor loud, as a function of instantaneous need based on employeepreferences. While this example is simple, many other more complexdynamic space characteristic changes are contemplated. For instance, attime a majority of employees in a large space may prefer a relativelywarm environment and at other times a different majority of employees inthe same large space may prefer a relatively cool environment. Here, thesystem server may adjust temperatures in different subspaces of a largeopen office space to change the number of benches in cool subspaces tothe number of benches in warm subspaces to meet instantaneous needs. Asanother instance, a system server may change a routing path of employeesthrough a large open office space if the noise characteristic of aspecific subspace along an initial path changes from loud to quiet.

In some embodiments a universal interface (UI) may be provided at asubset or at several of the affordance configurations so that employeesat each configuration type are generally familiar with the UI attributesand therefore are likely to use the UI more readily. In at least somecases the UI will be extremely simple and intuitive. In some cases theUI will be designed as the “face of a space” and will have controlfeatures that can be dialed up and down by an employee for controllingconfiguration affordances as well as content presented in the space.When dialed down, the UI will be minimal and while presented quietlywithin a space, will nevertheless be rendered closely available toemployees using space affordances.

These and other objects, advantages and aspects of the invention willbecome apparent from the following description. In the description,reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof,and in which there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention.Such embodiment does not necessarily represent the full scope of theinvention and reference is made therefore, to the claims herein forinterpreting the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exemplary space guidance and managementsystem that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a portion of the map representation shown in FIG. 1including exemplary reception and café configurations, a personal benchconfiguration, a focus station, a content amplification kiosk, anenhanced privacy station and a team studio configuration that areconsistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the exemplary and simplified databasesshown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an exemplary reception configurationand an exemplary café configuration from FIG. 2 that are consistent withat least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary screen shot that may be presented via a receptionscreen shown in FIG. 4 for providing guidance to an employee in thespace of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the reception and café configurationsshown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing a different screen shot ofthe reception screen;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an exemplary method that is consistentwith at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting a different set of information;

FIG. 10 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 11 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 12 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 13 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 14 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 15 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 16 is similar to FIG. 5, albeit showing the reception screenpresenting another information set;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of an exemplary personal benchconfiguration shown in FIG. 2, with a bench work surface in a low seatedposition;

FIG. 18 is similar to FIG. 17, albeit showing one of the bench stationswith a work surface member in a standing height position;

FIG. 19 is a schematic image illustrating an undersurface of theexemplary work surface shown in FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a cross-sectional view of a user interface that is providedas part of the bench configuration shown in FIGS. 17 and 18;

FIG. 21 shows a top plan view of the interface configuration shown inFIG. 20;

FIG. 22 is a partially exploded view of a portion of the bench assemblyor configuration shown in FIG. 17;

FIG. 23 is a front plan view of one of the screen assemblies shown inFIG. 17;

FIG. 24 is similar to FIG. 22, albeit showing a different screenconfiguration;

FIG. 25 shows yet another screen configuration where the screen includesa curved portion;

FIG. 26 is a schematic view illustrating a silence preference indicatorand showing the relationship of indicator quadrants to differentpersonal bench configurations in a four-pack of personal benches;

FIG. 27 is similar to FIG. 23; albeit showing other messaging types;

FIG. 28 is similar to FIG. 26, albeit showing an exemplary silencepreference indicator in a different state;

FIG. 29 is similar to FIG. 28, albeit showing the silence preferenceindicator in another state;

FIG. 30 is similar to FIG. 23; albeit showing an exemplary string ofvisual guidance indicators for leading an employee to a differentlocation within an enterprise space;

FIG. 31 is similar to FIG. 30, albeit showing a different set of visualguidance indicators;

FIG. 32 shows two different types of personal bench screenconfigurations;

FIG. 33 is similar to FIG. 32, albeit showing yet other types of screenconfigurations;

FIG. 34 is a perspective view of an exemplary focus station shown inFIG. 2 that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 35 is a side perspective view of the focus station of FIG. 34;

FIG. 36 is another side perspective view of the focus station shown inFIG. 34;

FIG. 37 is a front perspective view of the focus station shown in FIG.34;

FIG. 38 is a rear perspective view of the focus station shown in FIG.34;

FIG. 39 is a bottom plan view of the focus station shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 40 is a top partial plan view of a user interface that may beprovided as part of the focus station shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 41 is a view of an exemplary message that may be presented via thescreen assembly shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 42 is a plan view of an exemplary enhanced privacy station shown inFIG. 2 that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 43 is a perspective view of the station of FIG. 42;

FIG. 44 is a top flattened view of the station shown in FIG. 42;

FIG. 45 is a schematic view of the station of FIG. 42 with the fourwalls that comprise the station laid out in a flat view;

FIG. 46 is a top plan view of an interface table included in the stationshown in FIG. 42;

FIG. 47 is similar to FIG. 45, albeit showing station affordances at adifferent point in time during a use sequence;

FIG. 48 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing the station affordances ata different point in time;

FIG. 49 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing the station affordances atyet another point in time;

FIG. 50 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing the station affordances atyet another point in time;

FIG. 51 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing the station affordances atyet another point in time;

FIG. 52 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing the station affordances atyet another point in time;

FIG. 53 is a partial view of one of the display screens shown in FIG.52;

FIG. 54 is similar to FIG. 47, albeit showing station affordances atanother point in time;

FIG. 55 is a perspective view of an exemplary content amplificationkiosk shown in FIG. 2 that is consistent with at least some aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 56 is a top plan view of the kiosk shown in FIG. 55;

FIG. 57 is a rear plan view of the kiosk shown in FIG. 55;

FIG. 58 is a top plan view an exemplary user interface that may beprovide as part of the kiosk of FIG. 55;

FIG. 59 is a schematic view showing the interface of FIG. 58 and thescreen of FIG. 55;

FIG. 60 is similar to FIG. 59, albeit showing the screen at a differentpoint in time;

FIG. 61 is similar to FIG. 60, albeit where the screen presents contentas opposed to presenting a large representation of a remote employee;

FIG. 62 is a schematic view of lap top computer including a kioskcontrol user interface that is consistent with at least some aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 63 is a top perspective view of an exemplary team studio shown inFIG. 2 that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 64 is a perspective view of the studio configuration shown in FIG.63;

FIG. 65 is a perspective view of the studio configuration shown in FIG.63, albeit from outside the studio looking through a wall structure;

FIG. 66 is similar to FIG. 65, albeit where glass panels and a glassdoor that form a wall to the studio configuration are shown opaque;

FIG. 67 is a perspective view of the four walls that form the studioconfiguration shown in FIG. 63 laid out at a particular point in time ina use sequence;

FIG. 68 a partially exploded view of a halo ceiling structure orconfiguration that may be used in the team studio configuration shown inFIG. 63;

FIG. 69 is a partial cross-sectional view of the halo structure shown inFIG. 68 in an assembled form;

FIG. 70 is a screen shot illustrating an exemplary boot-up screen shownin FIG. 67;

FIG. 71 is similar to FIG. 70, albeit showing the boo-up screenpresenting a different set of information;

FIG. 72 is a schematic illustrating an exemplary universal interfacethat maybe provided within the team studio configuration shown in FIG.63;

FIG. 73 is a top plan view of one of the table assemblies shown in FIG.63;

FIG. 74 shows a portion of the table top in FIG. 73 with a simplifieduniversal interface presented on the top surface of the table top;

FIG. 75 is similar to FIG. 74, albeit showing a second level of theuniversal interface on a table top surface;

FIG. 76 is similar to FIG. 67, albeit showing studio configurationaffordances at a different point in a sequence of use;

FIG. 77 is a schematic showing the boot-up screen and the halo structureproviding signals and messaging near the end of a meeting;

FIG. 78 is similar to FIG. 76, albeit showing the studio configurationaffordances at a different point in the sequence of use;

FIG. 79 shows a screen shot of the boot-up screen presenting guidanceinformation to employees after a meeting in a team studio configurationhas ended;

FIG. 80 is similar to FIG. 79, albeit presenting additional guidanceinformation to employees leaving a team studio;

FIG. 81 is a schematic diagram illustrating a different type of userinterface that may be provided via one of the personal benchconfigurations that is consistent with additional aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 82 shows yet another type bench configuration interface device;

FIG. 83 is a perspective view of another bench configuration that isconsistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure where alateral screen is shown in a large view;

FIG. 84 is a top perspective view of an edge of the lateral screen shownin FIG. 83;

FIG. 85 is a front plan view of an LED matrix type display screen thatmay be used to provide messaging in the privacy screen shown in FIG. 83;

FIG. 86 is a view of an enlarged portion of the screen shown in FIG. 85;

FIG. 87 shows the screen in FIG. 85 with a fabric cover member stretchedthere across;

FIG. 88 is similar to FIG. 84, albeit showing an upper edge light devicethat is consistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 89 shows a send end of the top edge of the screen in FIG. 88 with asingle preference selection button;

FIG. 90 shows a screen assembly with messaging displays that presentscontent in a different format;

FIG. 91 shows the content of FIG. 90 in more detail;

FIG. 92 is an enlarged view of the upper left corner of the screen shownin FIG. 91 showing messaging and signaling that maybe presented via thescreen to employees in an enterprise space;

FIG. 93 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 94 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 95 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 96 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 97 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 98 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 99 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 100 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 101 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 102 is similar to FIG. 92, albeit showing a different set ofmessaging and signaling;

FIG. 103 shows a top plan view of several work bench configurations andzones of noise level thresholds for controlling silence reminders thatis consistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 104 shows an exemplary portable personal computing device includingvirtual tools for providing space use feedback to a space user;

FIG. 105 is a perspective view of a bench assembly with control buttonsor messaging indicators built into an edge of a work surface member;

FIG. 106 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary multi-densitybeacon arrangement that is consistent with at least some aspects of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 107 is a partial perspective view of a workstation edge structureand associated presence sensing zones that are consistent with at leastsome aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 108 is a cross sectional view of a capacitive trough table topinterface configuration that is consistent with at least some aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 109 is a perspective view of a conferencing assembly that isconsistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 110 is a schematic view of an exemplary screen shot that may beprovided to a remote conferee showing the conference space of FIG. 109and other information;

FIG. 111 is similar to FIG. 110, albeit where the remote user viewincludes a second enlarged FOV into the space of FIG. 109;

FIG. 112 is similar to FIG. 110, albeit where a remote user has selectedto enlarge content on one of the display screens in the FIG. 109conference space;

FIG. 113 is yet another remote conferee's interface to the spacerepresented in FIG. 109, albeit where a processor provides FOV optionsof interest for selection by the remote user to enlarge views into theFIG. 109 space;

FIG. 114 is similar to FIG. 109, albeit showing various FOVs andredacted areas within a local conference space;

FIG. 115 is an emissive surface view that may be provided on thewhiteboard shown in FIG. 109 that shows remote views being seen byremote conferees;

FIG. 116 is similar to FIG. 115, albeit showing a laptop or otherpersonal portable computer screen that indicates to a specific confereeother remote conferees that are currently viewing the specific conferee;

FIG. 117 is similar to FIG. 116, albeit indicating that no remoteconferee is viewing the conferee associated with the device thatincludes the illustrated screen;

FIG. 118 is a screen shot from an interface used to select and setredacted portions of a conference space that cannot be remotely viewedby remote conferees;

FIG. 119 is similar to FIG. 109, albeit where a camera system includesthree wide angle cameras as opposed to a 360 degree camera where asystem processor stitches together images from all three cameras toprovide a 360 camera effect within a conference space;

FIG. 120 is a screen shot that may be presented on a conferee's personalportable computing device where the conferee is offered the option todecline a remote view that includes the conferee;

FIG. 121 is a partial perspective view and a partial top plan view of aheight adjustable workstation interface that is consistent with at leastsome aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 122 is a partial perspective and partially exploded bottom view ofthe assembly of FIG. 121;

FIG. 123 is similar to FIG. 122, albeit showing the assembly is adifferent state of being assembled;

FIG. 124 is a flow chart that represents one height adjust controlscheme that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 125 is a partial perspective view that shows yet another heightadjustable workstation interface that is consistent with at least someaspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

The various aspects of the subject disclosure are now described withreference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals correspond tosimilar elements throughout the several views. It should be understood,however, that the drawings and detailed description hereafter relatingthereto are not intended to limit the claimed subject matter to theparticular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the claimed subject matter.

As used herein, the terms “component,” “system” and the like areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable,a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a computer and the computercan be a component. One or more components may reside within a processand/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers or processors.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other aspects or designs.

Furthermore, the disclosed subject matter may be implemented as asystem, method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standardprogramming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware,hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer or processorbased device to implement aspects detailed herein. The term “article ofmanufacture” (or alternatively, “computer program product”) as usedherein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computerreadable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storagedevices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips . . . ), opticaldisks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) . . . ),smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick). Additionallyit should be appreciated that a carrier wave can be employed to carrycomputer-readable electronic data such as those used in transmitting andreceiving electronic mail or in accessing a network such as the Internetor a local area network (LAN). Of course, those skilled in the art willrecognize many modifications may be made to this configuration withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.

Unless indicated otherwise, a person (e.g., an employee of anenterprise, a contractor, a supplier, a client or customer, etc.) thatis located in an enterprise space and uses that space for any purposewill be referred to herein as an “employee”. In addition, unlessindicated otherwise, the phrase “system server” will be used herein torefer to any type of computing device or configuration of devicescapable of performing some, all or any subset of the processes describedherein. For instance, a system server may include a dedicated systemserver, a workstation, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a tablettype computing device, a local computing device associated with aspecific affordance configuration, a remote processing device, etc.

In addition, while the system server may include a single computingdevice, in many cases it is contemplated that the system server mayinclude a number of linked servers or other computing devices, eachperforming different functions and processes or the set cooperating toperform different functions and processes as described in thisspecification. For example, a first server may run space schedulingsoftware designed to maintain schedules for all enterprise spaces andaffordance configurations, a second server may run employee schedulesoftware designed to maintain schedules for employees associated with anenterprise, a third server may track locations of employees as they moveabout in enterprise space and a fourth server may run software fordriving system actuators or output devices such as displays screens,indicator lights or lighting devices, speakers, telepresence systems,motors to drive moveable system components, or any other types ofactuators that may affect enterprise space environment characteristics.

In still other cases, it is contemplated that many processors may belocated throughout an open office space that can perform various tasksassociated with specific devices in the space where the tasks arecoordinated by a central server. For instance, in at least some cases, aseparate processor may be provided for each affordance configuration oreven for each different controllable component associated with anaffordance configuration where each processor is assigned a virtualnetwork address useable to communicate with the server. Here, the servermay receive data from at least a subset of the networked processors forprocessing and may provide control signals and data to at least a subsetof the networked processors to perform different functions, methods andprocesses that are described hereafter. In at least some cases, systemprocessors may be programmed to communicate directly with each otherinstead of through the central server to perform various tasks. Inparticularly advantageous embodiments, the system processors andserver(s) are linked via a wireless network where each processor islinked to a transceiver for transmitting data to other system devicesand for receiving data and commands from other system devices. This typeof system where devices and components are linked together in a networkis sometimes referred to as an internet of things.

In the disclosure that follows, various furniture, wall and deviceconfigurations are described that may be used by employees within alarge and generally open office environment. A specific furniture, walland device configuration will be referred to hereinafter as an“affordance configuration”, unless indicated otherwise. Moreover, in thedisclosure that follows, various affordance configurations are describedthat may be temporarily used by employees. For instance, a personalbench (see FIG. 17) may be used by an employee as a sort of temporaryhome base throughout the course of a day. Herein, unless indicatedotherwise, when an employee is temporarily using a configuration, theterm “own” will be used to refer to the temporary association betweenthe employee and the configuration. Thus, for instance, where anemployee is scheduled to use a personal bench for 6 hours, therelationship between employee and bench will be referred to asownership. Similarly, when an employee takes control of an individualfocus station (see FIG. 34) for a two hour period, it will be said thatthe employee “owns” the focus station during the two hour period.

Many of the concepts described in this disclosure may employ lightindicators where different colors of light can be generated to indicatedifferent conditions or states or other types of information. Similarly,where information is presented on a display screen often times theexamples in this disclosure will describe fields, icons, etc., as beinghighlighted, colored, or otherwise visually distinguished in somefashion using different color. In the figures described hereafter,unless indicated otherwise, different colors will be represented bydifferent styles of cross hatching or patterns. For instance, left up toright cross hatching will be used to indicate a green color, left downto right cross hatching will be used to indicate a red color, dualhorizontal and vertical hatching will be used to indicate a pink color,dual diagonal hatching will be used to indicate a blue color, horizontalhatching will be used to indicate a yellow color and vertical hatchingwill be used to indicate a gray color. In addition, vertical hatching isalso used at times in this disclosure to indicate an opaque orsemi-opaque glass member or other vision obscuring effect (e.g., ablurring of an image on a display screen).

Referring now to FIG. 1, the present disclosure will be described in thecontext of an exemplary space management system 10 that includes, amongother things, a plurality of generally open office plan spaces 12 a, 12b, 12 c, . . . 12 n, a server 20, sensing devices/sensors 22,information output devices 25 and actuators 27.

Each space 12 a, 12 b, etc., includes a set of activity supportingaffordance configurations. Referring also to FIG. 2, one subspace 70 ofspace 12 a in FIG. 1 is shown in a larger view where subspace 70includes several different activity supporting configurations includinga reception configuration 51, a “café” configuration 52, an enhancedprivacy configuration 54, a focus station 56, an amplifier kiosk 58, apersonal bench configuration 60 and a team studio configuration 62.Here, it has been recognized that throughout the course of a day, mostemployees work differently at different times and that different typesof activities can be supported optimally via different affordanceconfigurations. The seven different activity supporting configurations51, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62 reflect the realization that employeeswork best and are most efficient when they have access to differentaffordance configurations for accomplishing different tasks at differenttimes.

In most cases, regardless of what else is going on during an employee'sday at a facility, it will be useful for an employee to reserve a spacefor personal use as a sort of day “base station” where the employee canstore personal goods, charge personal portable electronic devices,access personal or other computing devices to perform various tasks suchas content generation, content review, etc., and where the employee canroutinely return between other activities at other locations within thefacility space when time permits. Hereinafter, unless indicatedotherwise, spaces reserved for personal use within facility space willbe referred to as personal benches. While personal benches may takeseveral forms in at least some embodiments, in the present disclosure,exemplary personal benches are described that are configured to have atleast some adjustable features that can be controlled to accommodate atleast some personal preferences such as, for instance, worksurfaceheight, lighting effects, temperature, air flow, etc. Here, whileadjustable features are provided, for the most part, personal bencheshave substantially similar characteristics and operate in asubstantially similar way.

In at least some embodiments a personal bench will be included in alarger configuration that includes several personal benches to minimizespace and mechanical structure required to provide personal benches.Thus, for instance, in some cases, a personal bench configuration willinclude four work surfaces and associated privacy screen subassembliessupported by support structure for simultaneous use by up to fourseparate employees. An exemplary four pack bench configuration 60including four personal benches is shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 and will bedescribed in greater detail hereafter.

While most employees will value hotelling at a single personal benchduring at least a portion of a day to perform many tasks, mostemployees, at times, need to perform tasks that a typical personal benchis not optimized to facilitate. For instance, a first employee may havea two hour period during which the she is not scheduled for any specificactivities from noon to 2 PM with a two hour meeting starting at 2 PM.The first employee may also need to intensely focus on a specific set ofmaterials to prepare for the 2 PM meeting. Here, while the firstemployee may own a personal bench for the day, the bench, being part ofa four pack bench assembly and/or at least located within a space thatincludes other proximate benches temporarily owned by other employees,is clearly not optimized for intensely focused work activities. Here, inat least some embodiments, other affordance configurations are providedthat are highly optimized for intensely focused individual work andthose configurations can be used by employees on an as needed basis. Anexemplary “focus station” configuration 56 is shown in FIG. 34 whichwill be described in greater detail hereafter.

As another instance, at times a first employee may need to participatein a teleconference session with one or more remote employees. Clearly apersonal bench that is proximate other personal benches does notfacilitate telepresence activities in an optimal way. Here, separateoptimized enhanced privacy configurations are provided within a facilityspace to be used by employees on an as needed basis. An exemplaryenhanced privacy configuration 54 is shown in FIG. 42 which is describedin greater detail hereafter.

As yet one more instance, at times a first employee using a personalportable computing device (e.g., a laptop, a pad type device, a smartphone, etc.) may want to amplify content for personal viewing or so thatthe content can be shared with a second or more employees in a smallgroup and the employee may be indifferent to privacy. Again, thepersonal benches in the present disclosure are not optimized for contentamplification. In this regard, at least the disclosed personal benchesin many embodiments are not equipped with large display screens orprojectors required to amplify content. In addition, personal benches inthe present disclosure are located proximate other personal benches sothat any sharing of content with second or more employees may bedisruptive to employees located at other proximate personal benches. Theprivacy afforded by one of the enhanced privacy configurations is notneeded in this case as privacy is not a concern. Thus, in some cases,content amplifying stations may be provided at different locationswithin a facility space for use by employees on an as needed basis. Anexemplary content amplifying station 58 is shown in FIG. 55 and isdescribed in detail hereafter.

As another instance, personal benches are not optimized for team orlarger group meetings due to lack of space, lack of content sharingaffordances (e.g., large display screens, audio equipment, etc.), aninability to shield content from others and the fact that any meeting ata personal bench would necessarily disrupt other employees located atadjacent benches. To facilitate team meetings, optimized team studioconfigurations are provided in at least some embodiments consistent withthe present disclosure. An exemplary team studio configuration 62 isshown in FIG. 63 and is described in detail hereafter.

In particularly advantageous embodiments, it is contemplated that one ormore of each of the personal bench configuration, the focus station, thecontent amplifier kiosk, the enhanced privacy configuration and the teamstudio configuration will be grouped together in each subspace of afacility so that employees in each subspace have ready and spatiallyproximate access to any of the different types of space affordanceconfigurations needed throughout a typical day. Thus, for instance, seesubspace 70 in FIGS. 1 and 2 that includes an enhanced privacyconfiguration 54, a focus station 56, a content amplifier kiosk 58, afour pack personal bench assembly 60 and a team studio configuration 62.

While not shown specifically in FIG. 1, advantageous ratios of personalbenches to amplification kiosks to enhanced privacy configurations tofocus stations to team studios are contemplated. For instance, where asubspace is routinely used by 12 employees, it will be optimal to havemore than 12 personal benches in that subspace to accommodate more than12 employees at times when the number of employees exceeds the average.In addition, even if the maximum number of employees that use a subspaceat the same time is 20, it will be optimal to have more than 20 personalbenches in that subspace as different benches will be located indifferent sub-environments within the space and the space should includeenough benches in each of the sub-environments to meet personalpreferences of most if not all of the maximum number of employees in thespace. For instance, if the maximum number of employees that uses asubspace is 20 at any given time, if the maximum number of employeesthat prefer natural light at any given time is 13 and the maximum numberof employees that prefer synthetic light is also 13 at any given time,then, optimally, 26 benches should be provided in the subspace where 13are located in substantial natural light and 13 are located insubstantial synthetic light. Moreover, the number of benches optimal fora space may increase even further when other preferences are consideredsuch as noise level, foot traffic preferences, temperature, air flow,etc.

Typically, the number of focus stations, content amplifying kiosks,enhanced privacy configurations and team studios is smaller than thenumber of personal benches required in a facility space. To this end,for instance, while focus stations are advantageous, only a fraction ofemployees in any given space will likely prefer using a focus station toa personal bench at any given time. Thus, where 20 employees temporarilyown personal benches in a subspace at one time, the maximum number offocus stations required to support the subset of those 20 employees maybe 4. Thus, where 36 or even 30 benches may be required to optimallysupport 20 employees in a subspace, the optimal number of focus stationsmay be four or five. Other optimal ratios of different affordanceconfigurations are also contemplated.

Thus, in at least some particularly useful embodiments, the ratio ofpersonal benches to focus stations in a subspace (e.g., 70 in FIG. 2)may be in the range between three to one and six to one and, inparticularly advantageous systems, may be in the range between four toone and five to one. The ratio of personal benches to content amplifyingkiosks 58 may be in a range between three to one and six to one and, inparticularly advantageous systems, may be in the range between four toone and five to one. The ratio of personal benches to enhanced privacyconfigurations 54 may in the range between three to one and six to oneand in particularly advantageous embodiments may be in the range betweenfour to one and five to one. The ratio of personal benches to teamstudios 62 may be in a range between six to one and fifteen to one andin particularly useful embodiments may be in a range between seven toone and nine to one.

In addition to configurations and stations 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62,exemplary subspace 70 also includes a café configuration or space 52 anda reception configuration or space 51. The reception configuration 51includes a reception display screen that can help arriving employeesunderstand space layout, resource characteristics and resource (e.g.,affordances and employees) locations within the facility space as willbe described in detail hereafter and that can help employees takeownership of personal benches that are optimized to meet employeespecific preferences.

Café configuration 52 is provided at an entry area of subspace 70 and isdesigned to help employees transition into the subspace from outside thesubspace. To this end, the café configuration may present an abstractimage on a surface that is a visual metaphor for some aspect of thespace. For instance, the abstract image may be controlled to mirror theenergy within the space so, for example, if only one employee is locatedin the space and that employee is using a focus station 56 to performindividual focused work, the image may be simple and slow moving. Asanother example, if fifteen employees are located in the space andseveral intense meetings are occurring, the image may include morecomplex components that are swirling or moving at a relatively fastpace. This concept is described in greater detail hereafter.

Referring yet again to FIG. 2 and as described in greater detailhereafter, each of the configurations and stations 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62includes, among other components, at least some type of view blockingwall or screen structure to block at least some views of employeeslocated at each of the configurations or stations by other employees. Inat least some embodiments, the stations and configurations as well asother configuration walls and affordances (e.g., shelf units) arearranged so that no employee at a use position associated with any oneof the stations or configurations has a direct and unimpeded view intoat least some of the other stations and configurations. For instance, itshould be appreciated that no employee at any use location associatedwith any of configurations or stations 54, 58, 60 or 62 or, for thatmatter, in the café space 52 or the reception space 51, has an unimpededview into the internal portion of focus station 56 in FIG. 2. This isbecause station 56 is juxtaposed so as to open to a side opposite alikely high foot traffic area and toward a wall structure 53. Inaddition, a shelf unit 55 is located adjacent bench configuration 60 tofurther impede the view of employees at bench configuration 60 into thefocus station 56. Similarly, content amplifier kiosk 58 is arranged tohave a wall structure 57 directly behind a station use location whichimpedes views of content on a large display screen on which content maybe amplified at station 58.

While seven specific affordance configurations are described herein andeach of those configurations includes features and aspects that havevarious advantages, it should be appreciated that other systems may haveother supporting configurations or may only include a subset of thesupporting configurations described herein. Nevertheless, it has beenrecognized that there are at least seven different categories ofactivities that most employees participate in at one time or anotherwhile in office spaces and that seven different affordanceconfigurations can be provided where each configuration is optimized forone of the seven different activity categories.

In most cases, even where personal benches have similar or substantiallyidentical configurations, different employees will prefer to use one ora subset of personal benches to other benches within a large facilityspace for various reasons. For instance, a first employee may be on aproject team with other employees and may prefer to own a personal benchlocated proximate other employees on her project team. The firstemployee may also prefer that her personal bench be located as close aspossible to a conference space scheduled to be used by the team from 10AM to noon. A second employee may prefer to own a personal bench locatedremote from all other employees, in a relatively quiet space and asclose as possible to a large exterior window so that the second employeeis located in natural sun light during the day.

In at least some embodiments a set of personal bench suggestion factorsand each employee's preferences and habits for each of the suggestionfactors may be stored in a database. One or more automated “reception”configurations may be provided at different key locations throughout afacility space to, among other things, present information about thespace and resources therein to help employees discover and use optimalspace resources given their own suggestion factor preferences. Inaddition to helping employees discover and use resources, the receptionconfigurations can also help employees locate resources including anoptimized personal bench, conference spaces, specific resources liketelepresence systems, other employees located within a facility space ingeneral, specific employees (e.g., employees on a specific team) withinfacility space, the locations of personal benches and other resourcesused by specific employees or locations of resources being used byemployees in general within a facility space.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the sensor devices 22 may include manydifferent types of sensor devices located throughout space 12 aincluding but not limited to wireless access points (see 50 in FIGS. 1and 2), cameras, pressure or weight sensors (see 551 in FIG. 34), RFIDsensors, presence sensors, biometric readers, microphones, gesturesensing devices, touch sensors (e.g., associated with an electronicdisplay screen or emissive surface), etc. The sensor devices areprovided to, in general, sense activities and conditions within space 12a as well as in some cases, to receive control commands from employeeswithin space 12 a.

Access points 50 may be used to generate information useable by systemserver 20 to ascertain locations of employees within space 12 a via anyone of many well known triangulation techniques. In other cases, systemcameras throughout space 12 a may be able to generate images useable bya system server to determine identities and locations of employeeswithin space 12 a. Other identity and location sensing systems arecontemplated. Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, it will beassumed that system 10 is equipped with a wireless location trackingsystem that identifies employee locations within space 12 a as well asthe identities of specific employees in space 12 a. In addition, accesspoints 50 enable wireless communication between server 20 and componentor affordance configuration processors.

Information output devices 25 may include any of several different typesof devices including but not limited to display screens or otheremissive surfaces, projectors and associated surfaces projected on to,speakers, light device or any other type of visual output device thatcan be controlled to indicate visually distinguished states orinformation. For instance, see the reception display 84 shown in FIGS. 4and 5 that serves as a relatively informative output device. As anotherinstance, simple LED or incandescent lighting devices may serve asinformation output devices 25.

Herein, unless indicated otherwise, numeral 30 will be used to refer tovisual indicators generally which are a particular subset of theinformation output devices 25 for indicating conditions or some type ofinformation in a “glanceable” fashion. Here, the term “glanceable” meansthat an employee can simply view the indicator and discern the meaningof information being conveyed from the appearance of the indicatoralone. Thus, for instance, white light may indicate that an affordanceconfiguration is not currently being used by another employee andtherefore is available for use by any employee while green light mayindicate that the configuration is currently in use or reserved for use.Other colors or different visual effects would be associated with otherstates, conditions or information. In the figures, a right up to leftarrow (see 30 a in FIG. 1, 30 f through 30 i in FIG. 30, etc.) is usedgenerally to indicate a visual indicator but it should be understoodthat many different types of visual indicators are contemplated.

Each indicator device 30 is linked to system server 20 either wirelesslyor in a wired fashion to be controlled according to processes to bedescribed hereafter. An exemplary visual indicator device 30 may includea bulb type device or some type of LED engine but it should berecognized that indicator devices used in the system 10 may take manydifferent forms such as, for instance, an LED assembly, incandescentlights, a neon light device, an emissive surface, a portion (e.g., aborder, a top ribbon, a colored icon, etc.) of a display screen oremissive surface, light projected onto one or more surfaces, lighttransmitted through a light pipe or other light diffusing structure,etc. Where a display screen or emissive surface provides a visualindicator function, in many cases only a portion of the screen orsurface will be used for that function and other sections of the screenmay be simultaneously used to present other information. Some visualindicators may be used for different purposes at different times. Forinstance, a display screen at a personal bench may, at times, be used topresent schedule warnings to an employee using the bench and may, atother times, be used as a visual guidance indicator to guide an employeealong a path within a large open space.

The visual indicator devices 30 may be stand alone devices or may belinked to or otherwise integrated into one or more of the affordanceconfigurations. For instance, in FIG. 1, device 30 a is shown mountedadjacent a wall structure within space 12 a and in that case likelywould include a standalone device such as an LED array that can becontrolled to generate any of several different clearly distinguishablecolors of light. As another instance, device 30 e is shown as associatedwith a personal bench assembly and that device would, as describedhereinafter, likely be integrated into the bench assembly.

In many embodiments, the visual indicators will indicate different typesof information by simply generating different colors of light where eachlight color is associated with a different condition or has a differentmeaning. In other cases, different patterns of on-off illumination mayindicate different conditions or information. In still other cases avisual indicator may indicate different conditions or information bychanging the pattern of light or the appearance of the visual indicator.Pattern or on-off sequencing to indicate conditions or information isparticularly advantageous where an employee is color blind and cannotdistinguish different colors. Where many different colors of light arerequired, one particularly useful technology is the technology used inthe Hue LED light bulbs sold by Phillips which can be controlled togenerate many different clearly distinguishable light colors and it iscontemplated that at least some embodiments here would employ the Huetechnology.

Referring yet again to FIG. 1, actuators 27 include various deviceslocated throughout space 12 a that are linked to system server 20 andthat can be controlled thereby to change the environment within space 12a and specifically the environment associated with at least a subset ofthe affordance configurations located within space 12 a. For instance,referring to FIG. 17, bench assembly 60 includes a height adjustable legassembly for each of four personal bench workstation table top membersso that the heights of the table tops can be independently adjusted tomeet specific employee preferences. Each height adjustable leg assemblyincludes one or more motors (not illustrated) that can be controlled tochange table top height and each of those motors is an actuator.

As another example, referring to FIG. 34, in at least some embodimentsspeakers 530 are provided in the upper section of the focus station seatassembly so that sound tracks can be played for an employee occupyingthe station. Here, the backrest speakers or their driver devices areactuators. As yet one more example, one or more opacity controllableglass walls may be provided as part of the enhanced privacyconfiguration 54 or the team studio configuration 62 (see again FIG. 2)to visually separate those configurations from other areas in space 12 awhen visual privacy is required. Here, the drivers for the opacitycontrollable glass walls are actuators. Thus, based on what is occurringin space 12 a and how different affordance configurations are beingused, system server 20 may automatically control any set of theactuators in space 12 a to adjust space attributes. Other actuators(e.g., heat generator controllers, fan controllers, light controllers,etc.) are contemplated and at least a subset are described hereafter ingreater detail.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an exemplary simplified database 24 isillustrated that includes, among other things, process software 72,enterprise space maps 74, a personal preferences database 76, a teamsdatabase 78, a personal schedules database and scheduling software 80and a space schedules database and scheduling software 82. Processsoftware 72 is run by server 20 to perform various processes that aredescribed hereafter. At a high level, software 72 has been designed toperform four basic tasks including (1) locating employees in space(e.g., “find me”), (2) understand who each employee is and employeepreferences (e.g., “know me”), (3) know the resources/affordances withinfacility space and (4) automatically suggesting available (e.g.,unscheduled and unused) resources/affordances in space to employees thatare consistent with employee preferences, habits, etc., when available.To this end, at least a subset of the processes prescribed by software72 include identifying locations and identities of employees orotherwise gaining access to that information from the location trackingsystem, placing employees at locations on enterprise space maps,detecting relative juxtapositions of other resources and betweenemployees on space maps, identifying optimized spaces and resources foruse by specific employees based on employee preferences, employeeschedules, space affordances and scheduled affordances and resources andguiding employees about within enterprise space. In addition, thesoftware 72 may include one or more programs that cause the systemserver 20 to relatively quietly encourage good behavior among employeesgenerally located proximate each other within a facility.

Referring still to FIG. 3, space maps 74 include virtual maps akin tothe representation of space 12 a shown in FIG. 1. Each map can bepresented via a reception display screen 84 as shown in FIG. 5 at 108with additional information applied thereto to indicate locations ofother resources on the map, to suggest different resources for use byemployees, to provide guidance to employees for locating differentresources or resource configurations, etc. In some embodiments, maprepresentations may also be presented on display screens that areincluded in other affordance configurations. For instance, see exemplarymap representation 519 in FIG. 33 and exemplary map representation 1230in FIG. 80.

Personal preferences database 76 stores a subset of personal preferencesand, in some cases, habits, for each employee that has specifiedpreferences at some earlier time (e.g., the first time the employee usedan affordance configuration within the space 12 a or within a differententerprise space) or for which habits have been learned. For instance, afirst employee may prefer to use personal benches that are in quietlocations where foot traffic is minimal but where there is a lot ofnatural light regardless of where employees on her project team arelocated and regardless of the locations of other activities on herschedule while a second employee may prefer to be located proximateemployees on his team regardless of all other factors. These and otherpreference sets may be stored in database 76. While simple preferencesare described here in the interest of simplifying this explanation, itshould be appreciated that far more complex preference sets arecontemplated. For instance, in addition to including noise, traffic,team location and proximity to other scheduled activity preferences,preference sets in database 76 may also include air flow preferences, apreference to have close access to a telepresence system, temperaturepreferences, affordance preferences (e.g., a certain type of taskchair), preferences related to juxtaposition with respect to a restroom,a kitchen, a café configuration, common printers used within a subspace,etc.

As another instance, the system may enable employees to specifypreferences that have different levels of importance. For instance, afirst employee may specify that natural light is particularly importantto her and therefore that natural light is a top priority when selectinga personal bench for use. Here, secondary considerations may include alow noise level and minimal foot traffic. In this case, when identifyinga personal bench to suggest to the first employee, the system server 20may first identify any benches that have high levels of natural lightand may only consider the secondary considerations if more than oneavailable bench with a high level of natural light is identified.

In still other cases, employees may be able to specify differentpreferences for different days of the week or at different times of aday. For example, a first employee may prefer a relatively cool spaceprior to noon and a relatively warm space after lunch. In this case, ifpossible, the system server may suggest a personal bench that has thetemperature characteristics preferred by the first employee. Forinstance, a personal bench that is located near a south facing windowmay be cool in the morning when sun light does not pass directly throughthe window and may be relatively warm in the afternoon when direct sunlight passes through the window. This station may be ideal for the firstemployee in this example.

Where an employee preference cannot be met when suggesting a personalbench, the system server 20 may suggest a bench that is the best optiongiven other employee preferences and may, if a different bench opens upthat is more consistent with the employee's preferences, provide noticeto the employee that the other bench opened up and encourage theemployee to move to the other bench. Similarly, when the conditionsassociated with a specific bench unexpectedly change and that bench isno longer consistent with an employee's preferences, the system maysense the change in conditions and may identify and suggest a differentbench. For example, where the sub-environment around a bench istypically quiet and that bench is assigned to a specific employee thatprefers a quiet bench, if the space around the bench suddenly becomespersistently loud (e.g., a meeting in the area ends), server 20 mayidentify and suggest a different bench based on a low sensed noiselevel.

Where an employee has not previously specified preferences, preferencedatabase 76 may store a default set of preferences to be used until theemployee does something to indicate preferences. For instance, defaultpreferences may include low noise, minimal foot traffic, near a restroom, natural light, near team members, near spaces in which otheractivities are scheduled for a specific employee, a mid-leveltemperature, etc.

Regarding habits, in a case where an employee does not directly specifypreferences and instead simply selects a particular bench for use bytravelling through a space 12 a, finding an available (e.g., un-owned)bench that the employee likes and taking ownership of that bench, server20 may be programmed to automatically build a preferences list for theemployee based on characteristics of the selected bench. In this case,at some future time server 20 can use the employee's habits that arereflected in the stored preferences to suggest benches in other spaces(e.g., 12 b, 12 c, etc.).

Data used to characterize affordance configurations and subspaces withinenterprise facilities in general may be developed using sensors locatedwithin the space and/or via employee feedback. For instance, soundsensors may be integrated into each of the affordance configurations(e.g., benches, focus stations, content amplifier kiosks, etc.) ormounted nearby each of the configurations to sense the level of noiseoccurring at the locations associated with each of the configurations.As another instance, images from cameras in space 12 a may be used toassess the level of foot traffic in each area of the space 12 a. In thealternative, after using a configuration, server 20 may poll an employeefor feedback related to various aspects of the space including perceivednoise level, temperature fluctuation, lighting, perceived level of foottraffic, etc. The configuration characterizing data may be stored in theenterprise space maps 74 (see again FIG. 3) where a different set ofconfiguration characterizing data is stored for each of the affordanceconfigurations (e.g., 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62 in FIG. 2).

Teams database 78 in FIG. 3 includes a list of project teams or othersets of employees that are somehow associated with each other (e.g.,sales representatives, IT specialists, etc.) and members of each team orother associated group. For instance, where seven employees worktogether as a team on project AA, the project AA team and all sevenmembers would be listed in database 78. The teams in database 78 areused by server 20 to provide information on team members associated withspecific employees in ways described hereafter.

Personal schedules and scheduling software 80 includes software thatmanages schedules of all employees and that stores data that specifiesthose schedules. Thus, for a first employee, the schedule database mayindicate that she has first and second team meets scheduled for an 8 AMto 10 AM time slot and a noon to 2 PM time slot, respectively, and thatthe remainder of her day is not scheduled. The scheduling software 80facilitates changes to the first employee's schedule including changingexisting scheduled activities and adding additional activities to opentime slots in her schedule. In particular, for the purposes of thisdisclosure, server 20 may indicate current association of the firstemployee with specific affordance configurations within space 12 a. Forinstance, a first employee's temporary ownership of one of the personalbenches may be added to the employee's schedule, a first employee'stemporary ownership of one of the focus stations may be added to theemployee's schedule, etc.

Space schedules and scheduling software 82 includes software thatmanages schedules of all facility spaces and affordance configurationsand that stores data that specifies those schedules. Thus, for a teamstudio configuration 62 (see again FIG. 1), the schedule database 82 mayindicate that first, second, third and fourth one hour team meetings arescheduled for that space at 8 AM, 10 AM, 11 AM and 3 PM, respectivelyand that the configuration is available for use as needed at other timesduring the day. The scheduling software facilitates changes to theconfiguration schedules including changing existing schedules and addingnew scheduled activities. For instance, when a first employee takesownership of a specific personal bench, that ownership is reflected inthe space schedule for the specific bench.

Referring now to FIG. 4, in at least some cases it is contemplated thatemployees in space 12 a (see also and again FIG. 1) will use, wear orotherwise be spatially associated with some type of device that can beused to identify the employees and determine employee location. Forinstance, in some cases an employee will wear an identification badge 90that includes, in addition to her image 94, name and other identifyinginformation, an identification tag 96 that stores badge user informationsuch as name, title, employee number, etc., where the employeeinformation stored in the tag can be accessed by sensor devices locatedthroughout space 12 a. Here, for instance, tag 96 may be equipped totransmit identification data via wireless signals to access points 50 inspace 12 a where strength of signal or time of flight associated withthe signals received at the access points 50 can be used to triangulatethe location of badge 90 and hence the employee associated therewith inspace 12 a. In other cases, proximity sensors 97 (see FIG. 4) may sensetag 96 when the tag 96 is relatively close (e.g., within 2 feet) to thesensor and employee location can then be assumed to be proximate thesensor that reads the data from tag 96. Tag 96 may be provided as partof some other wearable item such as a ring, a bracelet, a necklace, etc.

Referring still to FIG. 4, in other instances, one or more employee'smay use a smart phone or other personal computing device (e.g., a padtype device, a laptop computer, a smart watch, etc.) that cantriangulate its own location from signals received from the accesspoints in space 12 a or from other beacons and which can then transmitidentity and location information to system server 20 via the accesspoints for use in driving system processes. In still other cases theportable devices 92 may transmit signals to access points fortriangulation to identify device and hence employee locations.

In still other embodiments, sensor 97 may be any type of sensor devicethat can obtain information useable to identify specific employees andthat employees are proximate the device 97. For instance, device 97 maybe a high definition camera that can obtain images of employees that areof a high enough quality that they can be used to identify specificemployees via face recognition or some other type of biometric data.

While each of the different affordance configurations and stations 51,52, 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62 have advantageous component combinations andstructures and facilitate advantageous processes and methods and eachwill be described hereafter in detail, there are synergies between theconfigurations and stations that are particularly advantageous andtherefore, the configurations will be described in the context of theoverall space affordance system hereafter. The advantages associatedwith the overall system may best be understood in the context of anexample of how the system operates over the course of a day to help anexemplary employee and other employees use space resources/affordances.To this end, assume that a first employee Jen Black arrives at facilityspace 12 a (see again FIG. 1) at 7:26 AM for a meeting that is to beginin about two hours at 9:30 AM in Team Studio 1 with other employees on aproject team. In FIG. 5, Team Studio 1 is shown highlighted green (e.g.,left up to right cross hatched) in the upper right hand corner of space12 a representation 108 at 120. Also assume that while Jen has not beenin the facility including space 12 a before, she has been in otherenterprise facilities and has specified specific preferences regardingpersonal bench location and environment characteristics in general thatcan be used to help locate preferred benches in other spaces includingspace 12 a. Specifically, assume that Jen has previously indicated thatshe prefers a personal bench that is located proximate team memberswhere noise is relatively low (e.g., a quiet space) and foot traffic isminimal. Also assume that Jen has specified that she would, if possible,like to be located at a personal bench proximate spaces where she isscheduled to participate in other activities (e.g., team studios,enhanced privacy configurations, etc.). Further assume that several ofJen's team members arrived prior to Jen and already own personal benchesin space 12 a.

A. Reception and Café Configurations

Referring again to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 and now also to FIG. 6, when Jenfirst arrives at space 70, Jen first encounters reception configuration51 and then café configuration 52. The reception and café configurationsare immediately adjacent each other and, in fact, the receptionconfiguration opens into the café configuration in the exemplaryembodiment. Nevertheless, the reception and café configurations aredescribed as being separate here because they facilitate differentactivities. In other embodiments configurations 51 and 52 may beseparated by walls, screen or other mechanical structure or spatialdistance.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that synergies mayresult when the spaces occupied by a reception configuration and a caféconfiguration are contiguous (e.g., the reception space opens into thecafé space). To this end, the reception configuration 51 is provided tophysically transition an employee into a space by helping her understandspace layout and resource locations, understand which employees andteammates are present in the space and their locations and the locationsof personal benches temporarily owned by each, by indicating a locationof a next scheduled activity for the employee and by suggesting aspecific personal bench for use by the employee that is best alignedwith the employee's preferences, schedule, etc. In effect, the receptionconfiguration provides information that helps an employee physicallyfind resources in a larger area.

In addition to making a physical transition, it has been recognized thatmany employees also need to make a psychological transition into a workspace environment. In this regard, it is typically difficult for mostemployees to psychologically switch from one activity to another inshort order and instead, at least a short psychological transition isoften required. In prior known systems, no independent space andassociated configuration was provided to facilitate the psychologicaltransition and therefore, employees would make that transition at orproximate a hotelling space (e.g., at a personal bench of some type tobe used by the employee for the day). Not only are personal benches notoptimized to facilitate this type of transition, where a transitionoccurs at a bench, the transition often disrupts other employees thatoccupy adjacent personal benches or other proximate affordanceconfigurations. For instance, where a transition occurs at a personalbench, the transitioning employee may be taking off a jacket or othergarments, making small talk with other employees in the area, askingwhere coffee, tea, water or other refreshments can be obtained, etc.

In addition, in many cases a transitioning employee may have a differentenergy level than a space being transitioned to which can causedisruption in the flow of work by other employees in the space. Forinstance, where a transitioning first employee just left a high energymeeting ten minutes before arriving in a space where team members in thespace are working on a development phase of a project and are deep inindividual focused work activities, the first employee's energy maydisrupt the flow of the other employees in the space. As anotherinstance, where a transitioning first employee arrives in a high energyspace with low energy and would prefer to talk about last night'sfootball game instead of project activities, arrival can disrupt flow ina similar fashion.

The café configuration is designed to help facilitate an employee'spsychological transition. Ideally both the physical and psychologicaltransitions occur substantially simultaneously and therefore, providingboth the reception and café configurations sequentially in the samegeneral space without division is particularly advantageous. Inaddition, it is believed that the psychological transition does notinterrupt the physical and vice versa so providing both, albeitsequentially, in the same contiguous space, minimizes costs associatedwith architectural structure or additional space that would otherwise beneeded to separate the two areas.

Referring still to FIGS. 4 and 6, the exemplary reception/café space51/52 includes a large content wall 80 and an oppositely facing wall 77that, in the illustrated embodiment, are substantially parallel. Inaddition, a far end of the space is at least partially divided fromother subspace 70 area by a wall or dividing structure 97/99 that isarranged substantially perpendicular to the front surface of contentwall 80.

The reception portion of content wall 80 includes first and secondinformation output devices or arrangements that provide content adjacenta reception space (e.g., space at 51). In at least some embodiments thefirst information output device includes a projector 100 mounted to aceiling structure (not shown) to project content onto a portion ofcontent wall 80 as shown at 86. In at least some embodiments the scaleof content presented in area 86 is large and there is no need for anemployee to interact with the content and therefore a projected imagewill often be optimal from a cost perspective. Here, the projectedcontent includes a space identifier (e.g., a name) associated with thesubspace 70 which, in the present example, is “Enterprise North”.

Referring also and again to FIG. 2, in at least some embodiments walls82, screens or other mechanical structure are provided that guideemployees toward the projected content in area 86 so that as an employeewalks along the guided path, the employee's gaze or visual point of viewis directed right at the projected content in area 86. In at least someembodiments, area 86 has a width dimension between three feet and sevenfeet and a height dimension between two feet and nine feet and inparticularly advantageous embodiments the width dimension is betweenthree feet and six feet and the height dimension is between three feetand four feet.

The second information output device associated with reception area 51in the exemplary embodiment includes an electronic welcome displayscreen or emissive surface 84 located immediately adjacent the projectedcontent at 86. In at least some embodiments, screen 84 has a widthdimension between two feet and four feet and a height dimension betweentwo feet and five feet and in a particularly advantageous embodiment thewidth dimension is between two and one half feet and three and one halffeet and the height dimension is within a range between three feet andfour feet. In at least some embodiments the height dimension of screen84 is similar to the height dimension of area 86. Screen 84 may be anytype of display screen but a high definition screen is particularlyadvantageous so that detailed information in a relatively small formatcan be displayed at times. In at least some embodiments screen 84 istouch sensitive or at least a portion of screen 84 is touch sensitive sothat the screen 84 can operate as an input device to receive input andbe controlled by an employee to present various types of information.

Referring still to FIGS. 4 and 6, the content projected in area 86 ispresented in a relatively large format so that the content can be readfrom a relatively long distance away from area 86. For instance, eachletter presented in area 86 may have a height dimension anywhere betweenfour inches and twenty inches and in particularly advantageousembodiments may have a height between 10 and 14 inches. In contrast, thecontent presented on screen 84 is smaller in size where, for instance,most text letters presented have a height dimension within a rangebetween one quarter inch and two inches. Here, some content on screen 84may be larger but in general content is presented in a smaller formatthan the content presented in space 86 so that employees need to becloser to screen 84 than to space 86 to easily comprehend most of thepresented content. In addition to drawing an employee in for a good viewof presented content, the smaller content on screen 84 makes it at leastsomewhat difficult for other employees in the general area to see thecontent presented to a proximate employee on screen 84 and therefore thesmaller content feels at least somewhat private.

In some cases and indeed in the present example, an employee mayinteract at least somewhat with content presented on screen 84.Nevertheless, it is intended that the amount of interaction with contenton screen 84 be limited in particularly advantageous embodiments so thatthe limited functions associated with screen 84 can be accomplishedquickly and employees can be moved on to the café space rapidly without“camping out” at screen 84 for more than a short time. Thus, forinstance, while detailed content (e.g., white papers authored by, longbiographies, etc.) about employees already in the subspace 70 orpersonal documents of an employee transitioning into subspace 70 couldbe presented via screen 84, in particularly advantageous embodimentsthat detail of information will not be accessible via screen 84 so thatemployees move through space 51 relatively quickly. Here, screen 84 isintended to welcome and orient employees and not as a general contentoutput device.

Referring to FIG. 5, exemplary screen 84 includes four general areasincluding a high level orientation area 101, a detailed content area103, a map area 105 and an interface tool area 107. High levelorientation area 101 presents general information to orient an employeewith respect to location and time and, for instance, may present a nameassociated with subspace 70 (e.g., Enterprise North) and the currenttime of day (e.g., 7:26 AM). Other general content types (e.g., weatherreport, etc.) are contemplated.

Content area 103 presents various types of information and may presentdifferent information types at different times depending on how anemployee interacts with content presented in spaces 105 and 107. Onetype of information always presented on screen 84 when an employee iswithin a threshold distance of screen 84 is a clear indicator of whichemployee the content on screen 84 is intended for. To this end, see theintended content recipient tag at 69 which is consistently presented inother figures showing screen 84 that follow. In addition to her name, inat least some embodiments, an image or avatar associated with Jen Blackmay also be presented as part of tag 69 or otherwise independently inarea 103. Identity tag 69 is important to make sure that an employeeviewing screen 84 know if the content presented is for that employee orfor some other employee.

In at least some embodiments screen 84 will only present content for oneemployee at a time regardless of how many employees are located adjacentscreen 84. Here, in at least some cases, content will be presented to afirst arriving employee of a group of employees proximate screen 84 andcontent for that employee will persist until that employee moves awayfrom (e.g., outside some threshold distance like 5-10 feet) screen 84with another employee located within that threshold.

Although not shown, in other cases it is contemplated that screen 84 maybe dividable into two or more subspaces where content can be presentedsimultaneously to two or more arriving employees. Here, it isadvantageous if screen 84 has larger dimensions than described above sothat each arriving employee can be presented with all of the informationdescribed hereinafter, customized to their preferences andcircumstances.

Referring again to FIG. 6, in some embodiments, high definition screen84 may extend laterally and cover area 86 so that the content describedabove as being presented in area 86 may be presented via screen 84. Inthis case, when two employees arrive in space 51 at generally the sametime and each wants to use the welcome or reception display, a portionof the screen covering area 86 may temporarily present a second set ofwelcoming tools (e.g., a full set of the content shown in FIG. 6) to thesecond employee. In the alternative, screen 84 in FIG. 6 may extend tothe left and cover at least a portion if not all of area 82 so that asecond set of welcoming tools can be temporarily provided when needed tothe left of screen 84. In still other cases the entire wall surface orsubstantially the entire wall surface 80 may be provided via a singleemissive surface where any of a space identifier, one or more welcometool sets and an abstract image (see 98) can be presented at any timeand in a field located at any location on the emissive surface.

Referring again to FIG. 5, exemplary content in area 103 includes theidentity tag 69 and a salutation to greet a newly arriving employee. Theexemplary salutation in FIG. 5 is “Welcome”. In addition, field 103presents information related to Jen Black's schedule by indicating that“Your next meeting starts at 9:30 AM in Team Studio 1 which ishighlighted green on the map below.” Map area 107 includes a map 108 ofthe space 12 a and highlights Team Studio 1 green as indicated by theleft up to right cross hatching at 120. In addition, space 103 presentsinformation related to personal benches in space 12 a that Jen Black maywant to use during the day by presenting the message “Personal benchesthat meet your preferences are highlighted blue.” Map area 107 includesblue highlighting as indicated by the double diagonal cross hatching at130. In FIG. 5, several options for personal benches are highlightedblue, a subset of which are labeled 130. Thus, in the illustratedexample, the information in area 103 welcomes an arriving employee,indicates a next meeting time and location and suggests personal benchesto be owned by the employee for the day.

The benches suggested and highlighted on map representation 108 arebased on several suggestion factors as described above includingpersonal preferences that may include but are not limited to noiselevel, foot traffic level, air circulation, juxtaposition with respectto natural light, location with respect to restrooms, location withrespect to a coffee station or other resources, etc., available andunscheduled space, juxtaposition with respect to other spaces in whichthe employee is scheduled to attend meetings during the day,juxtaposition with respect to team members or other employees, etc. Oneother factor that may be used by server 20 to identify benches tosuggest to a specific employee is how long the employee will be in thesubspace 70 or general space 12 a. For instance, where an employee willonly be located in space 12 a for an hour, server 20 may be programmedto suggest benches where other employees are scheduled for short staysto minimize disruption to employees scheduled to own benches for longerperiods.

At least some characteristics associated with personal benches may bebased on historical conditions in a space 12 a while othercharacteristics may be determined instantaneously and in real time. Forinstance, locations of team members in space 12 a that are associatedwith a specific project would be determined real time while noise levelor the amount of foot traffic near a personal bench may be determinedeither in real time or based on past measured or reported conditions.For example, in the case of real time noise level, it is contemplatedthat microphones (e.g., one type of sensor) may be positioned throughoutspace 12 a that can be used to identify noise levels in real time andreport those levels to a system server for processing. In this case, ifa specific bench is in a loud subarea of space 12 a at a specific time,the noise characteristic for that subarea would be loud for that time.In the alternative, where a bench is in an area where the noise level isgenerally low based on prior sensed data, even if the area isinstantaneously noisy, the noise characteristic may still be quiet giventhe historical noise level in the space. Similarly, foot traffic,natural light, air flow, etc., characteristics associated with eachbench may be determined either real time or based on historical data.

While several suggested benches are indicated in FIG. 5, in otherembodiments it is contemplated that only one seemingly optimal bench,based on user preferences and other suggestion factors, may behighlighted to suggest use to a specific employee. In other cases whereseveral benches that meet or are close to meeting an employee'spreferences are highlighted, one of those benches may be speciallyhighlighted or otherwise visually distinguished to indicate a particularbench that is most consistent with the employee's preferences. Forinstance, in some cases where suggested benches are highlighted blue, anoptimal suggested bench may be highlighted a brighter blue than others.In still other embodiments, where a small subset of the suggestedbenches are optimal for different reasons, one of the suggestion factorsthat is most interesting may be indicated along with each associatedbench. For instance, see in FIG. 5 that a “low noise” tag 111 isspatially associated with one of the suggested benches while a “closestto team” tag 113 is spatially associated with another of the suggestedbenches.

Referring still to FIG. 5, map representation 108 includes a 2D top planview of space 12 a in the illustrated example. While representation 108includes all of space 12 a, in other embodiments representation 108 mayinclude only a portion of space 12 a such as subspace 70 associated withthe specific location of an employee located proximate screen 84.

In addition to presenting a representation of an associated space andhighlighting various space affordances or subareas to indicate nextmeeting location and suggested personal benches, representation 108 mayalso include an indication of where screen 84 and hence the employeeviewing screen 84 are located (see 106) and paths to different spaceshighlighted on the representation 108. For instance, one path 122 mayindicate how to get to the location of the employee's next scheduledmeeting while a different path 132 may indicate how to get to a personalbench that is suggested for the specific employee or that the employeehas taken temporary ownership of.

In some cases, a system server 20 may be programmed to only presentpaths or highlights that are temporally relevant. For instance, in thecase of representation 108 in FIG. 5, Team Studio 1 highlighting at 120may not be presented unless that meeting is scheduled to occur within ashort time period of an employee arriving at screen 84. For instance, inthe present example highlighting 120 and the related next meetinginformation in space 103 may not be presented unless that meeting is totake place in the next 30 minutes. Here, in the FIG. 5 example, becausethe next meeting does not occur for more than 2 hours, highlighting 120and the related message in space 103 would not be presented. By onlypresenting temporally relevant information, the employee is only focusedon schedule information required at the current time and can movethrough the reception space more rapidly so that other arrivingemployees can use screen 84 to transition into an associated space.

Although not shown in FIG. 5, the subspace 70 (see again FIG. 2) inwhich the employee is located may also be highlighted differently toindicate to the employee how the subspace is related to the largeroverall space 12 a. For instance, the subspace 70 may be highlightedyellow to distinguish that space from other are in space 12 a.

In other cases, additional useful information may be presented on maprepresentation 108 automatically when a specific employee arrives atscreen 84. For instance, see in FIG. 7 that “TM” tags are associatedwith different personal benches in representation 108. Here, each “TM”tag indicates a bench that is currently owned by a team member on a teamthat is associated with the employee that is viewing screen 84. Thus,the employee viewing screen 84 can obtain a good sense of where teammembers are with respect to space 12 a in general and, morespecifically, with respect to one or more benches being suggested to theemployee for use. While labeled “TM”, the team member bench tags maytake other forms such as, for instance, information that specificallyidentifies each team member such as names (see 196 in FIG. 10),initials, small images (see 194 in FIG. 10), etc.

As another instance, in addition to or instead of indicating thelocations of personal benches temporarily owned by team members,representation 108 may indicate current locations of team members via aTM tag or some member identity indicator. For instance, in FIG. 10 leftdown to right cross hatched highlighting at 119 (only one labeled whileseveral are shown) that indicates red highlighting may identify bencheswith team members while image icons (e.g., 121 and 117) indicate currentlocations of team members. See specifically that the team memberindicator 117 is shown spaced from any bench in representation 108 andtherefore, the team member associated with icon 117 is likely notlocated at one of the benches.

In addition, while not shown, it is contemplated that locations of allemployees in space 12 a and/or bench ownership status in space 12 a maybe indicated in representation 108 with or without specific identifyinginformation, so that the arriving employee has a complete sense of whois located in space 12 a as well as the locations of owned benches.Here, where all employees including team members are represented, teammembers may be represented differently such as, for instance, beingdifferently highlighted, by including additional identifyinginformation, etc. In addition, while all owned benches may be indicated,those owned by team members may be differently visually distinguished(e.g., different shading or highlighting, including team memberidentifying tags, etc.).

As yet another instance, a system server 20 may be able to identifyother resources, in addition to a space related to a next meeting for anemployee, that the employee may want to use in the near future (e.g., inthe next 30 minutes). For instance, where an arriving employee isscheduled to participate in a teleconference session with another remoteemployee 15 minutes after arriving at screen 84, server 20 may recognizethat a telepresence system is required and may automatically indicatelocations of telepresence systems that are available (e.g., notcurrently scheduled for use) throughout space 12 a or in a smallersubspace (e.g., 70) associated with the current location of theemployee. To this end, see for instance FIG. 13 that shows severalhighlighted benches (e.g., 262) and other spaces and associated cameraicons (collectively identified by numeral 260) that may be automaticallyshown when an employee that requires a telepresence system in the nearfuture arrives in front of screen 84.

Although not shown, other resources that may be required in the nearfuture by an arriving employee based on the employee's schedule may beautomatically indicated to the arriving employee. For instance,Steelcase manufactures and sells MediaScape systems that allow employeesto share content on one or more large common display screens within aspace in an egalitarian fashion. U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/053,213 which was filed on Oct. 14, 2013 and is titled “EgalitarianControl Apparatus And Method For Sharing Information In A CollaborativeWorkspace” describes several versions of the MediaScape system and isincorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Where an arrivingemployee's schedule indicates that the employee is going to participatein a collaborative conference in the next 30 minutes, the system servermay indicate unscheduled MediaScape configurations in the area that canbe reserved or used by the arriving employee if desired.

As another instance, where an arriving employee is scheduled to have ameeting with two other employees in ten minutes and all three employeesare located in space 12 a and where no meeting space has been reservedfor the meeting, server 20 may be programmed to automatically identifyavailable affordance configurations suitable for three employees andthat meet employee preferences in space 12 a and may suggest one or moreof those configurations to the arriving employee.

In any case where any resource (e.g., a configuration including atelepresence system, a three person conference configuration, etc.) issuggested or indicated to an employee, it is contemplated that theemployee may take temporary ownership of the resource via screen 84. Forexample, see again FIG. 13 where telepresence icons 260 are indicated.In this case, selection of a highlighted affordance configuration 262associated with one of the icons 260 may open up a space schedulingwindow and enable the employee to reserve the affordance for immediateuse or use at some other time during the day (e.g., for a subsequenttelepresence session. If an employee reserves an affordanceconfiguration 262 for a specific telepresence session (e.g., one tooccur in the next 10 minutes) server 20 may automatically identify asecond telepresence system that is scheduled to be used by a secondremote employee to participate in the session and may boot up and createa link between the two systems automatically prior to the scheduledsession. Similarly, if an employee reserves an affordance configurationfor a meeting with two other local employees, server 20 mayautomatically add the configuration information to the other employee'sschedules and/or send messages (e.g., e-mails, text, voice, etc.) tothose employees indicating the configuration and configuration locationfor the meeting.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that the system server 20 mayonly automatically suggest personal benches to a subset of employeesarriving at screen 84 based on scheduled activities for the employee.For instance, where an arriving employee's schedule indicates that thearriving employee will be leaving the subspace associated with screen 84in less than 10 minutes to travel to a different and remote location(e.g., to hop on a plane), the server may simply greet the employeewithout automatically suggesting a personal bench for use. Similarly, ifan employee has historically never taken ownership of a suggested bench,that preference may be stored in database 76 and used to decide not topresent bench options to the specific employee.

In many cases, as indicated above, screens 84 may be located at manydifferent locations within the large space 12 a. Here, based on where anemployee is scheduled to be and where the employee is currently located,the screens 84 at different locations may present different information.For instance when an employee enters space 12 a and arrives at a firstscreen 84, in some cases the first screen 84 may automatically presentpersonal bench options and other information as described above to helpthe employee select an optimized personal bench. If the arrivingemployee takes ownership of one of the suggested benches via the firstencountered screen 84, the subsequent screens 84 encountered may simplyoperate as part of a guidance system for the employee furtherinstructing or guiding the employee to the owned bench. Thus, the secondand later encountered screens 84 would not automatically continue tooffer benches to the employee once a bench has been selected.

In an alternative system, where an employee's team and/or the meetingspaces that the employee is scheduled to use are located remotely fromthe first screen 84 encountered by an arriving employee, the firstscreen may simply greet the arriving employee and indicate a generalsubspace proximate team members and/or resources to be used by theemployee to which the employee should travel and may also indicate apath to the general subarea or resources for the employee to follow.Then, when the employee arrives at the subspace proximate team membersand/or resources (e.g., meeting space) to be used by the employee, areception screen 84 proximate or spatially associated with that spacemay present more detailed information including suggesting personalbenches for the employee to temporarily own.

The idea of having different reception screens perform differentprocesses based on employee schedules, affordance configurationlocations and preferences is particularly useful in the context of largespaces like, for instance, an enterprise campus that includes severalbuildings where each building includes several floors. Here, forinstance, reception screens 84 at campus entrances may provide guidanceinstructions to specific employees to guide those employees to specificfloors in specific buildings and then other screens 84 on each buildingfloor may suggest specific affordance configurations to employees asthey arrive.

Referring again to FIG. 10, selection of highlighted bench icon 177opens a window 200 designed to facilitate bench selection. Window 200 inFIG. 10 includes general textual information about the selectedsuggested bench and specific environmental characteristics associatedwith the suggested bench. To this end, the general information in window200 indicates that the bench is near Pete White (a team member) and alsonear spaces in which the employee is scheduled to attend three meetings.The environmental information includes a sound level field 202, a lightintensity field 204, a traffic volume field 206 and a temperature field208. Fields 202, 204 and 206 indicate relative sound, light and trafficlevels, respectively, on a scale of 1 to 10 so that a viewing employeecan get a sense of those attributes for the selected bench. Field 208simply indicates temperature at the bench in degrees Fahrenheit. Window200 also includes a “Reserve Bench” icon 209 that is selectable toreserve an associated bench. An employee can simple touch an areaoutside window 200 to close the window if the employee does not want totake ownership of the bench for some reason.

When Reserve Bench icon 209 is selected, another window 244 as shown inFIG. 11 may be opened so that the employee can select a period overwhich the bench should be reserved for use by the employee. In FIG. 11the window 244 includes, among other things, a time line 246, a slotindicator 248 on line 246 indicating a time slot to reserve and aReserve Bench icon 250 for reserving an associated bench. Here, thelength of slot indicator 248 can be changed by selecting an end thereofand dragging along the length of line 244 until a desired time slot isindicated.

In other cases, referring again to FIG. 10, when an employee selects thereserve bench icon 209, the server will simply reserve the associatedbench for use by the employee for the remainder of the day. In stillother cases, while the server will reserve the space for the remainderof the day, the server may automatically, based on location or otherinformation related to the employee, free up the reserved bench. Forinstance, where the server reserves a specific bench for Jen Black inspace 12 a, if Jen Black uses the reserved bench for three hours until10:30 and then leaves space 12 a and Jen's schedule indicates that Jenis travelling to San Francisco at 10:30, the server may free up thestation automatically for use by another employee.

In at least some embodiments, content presented in representation 108may only initially be limited to certain types of content and moredetailed content may be accessible via employee request. To this end,for instance, in some cases as shown in FIG. 5, representation 108 mayonly indicate a next meeting location and one or more suggested personalbenches for use by an arriving employee along with tools 110, 112 and114 in area 107. Here, tools 110, 112 and 114 may be selected by anemployee via touch to access additional information via representation108. The tools 110, 112 and 114 shown in FIG. 5 include a team membertool, a personal bench tool and a telepresence tool, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 7, a pointer icon is shown at 170. Icon 170 may bepresented via screen 84 to invite an employee to touch the screen andinteract therewith. In the alternative, icon 170 may simply represent anemployee's hand which can be used to select different virtual icons orthe like presented on screen 84. Hereinafter, unless indicatedotherwise, it will be assumed that icon 170 is presented on the screen84 and that the icon will automatically move to any point on screen 84that is touched by an employee interacting with the screen 84.

In FIG. 7, pointer icon 170 is shown selecting team icon 110 which, whenselected, is highlighted green. When icon 110 is selected, the teammember tags 176 are presented on representation 108 to indicate currentlocations of team members. Again, instead of being generic, the tags 176may each including employee identifying information like an image, aname, initials, an associated avatar, or some combination thereof.Instead of presenting team member locations, the locations of personalbenches associated with team members may be indicated either generically(e.g., via highlighting) or via identifying information for the teammembers temporarily owning specific benches. In still other embodiments,both team member locations and the locations of personal benches ownedby each team member may be indicated either generically or with teammember specific identifying information. Space 103 explains what ispresented on representation 108.

Referring now to FIG. 9, an alternative view of information that may bepresented when team icon 110 is selected or automatically upon arrivalof Jen Black is shown. In FIG. 9, team member specific information ispresented in space 103 while team member locations are also shown onrepresentation 108. The member specific information in space 103includes, for each team member represented in representation 108, asmall image, name, current location and a time based schedule indicatorthat indicates when the current status of an associated team member isscheduled to change. For instance, see field 180 corresponding toemployee Pete White that includes an image of Pete White, the name PeteWhite and an indication of where Pete White is currently located 182. Inaddition, a time based schedule indicator 184 indicates that PeteWhite's current status, in a meeting in Team Studio 2, is scheduled tochange in 4 minutes. Field 180 may be visually distinguished in somefashion so that the time based schedule information can be discerned ina glanceable fashion (e.g., with a simple glance at the field). Forinstance, in FIG. 9, the left edge portion 186 (e.g., a glanceableindicator) of field 180 is horizontally hatched to indicate the coloryellow which, in the present example, may indicate that the employeeassociated with field 180 is going to change status (e.g., leave thecurrent meeting) in the next 5 minutes.

Referring still to FIG. 9, similarly, fields like field 180 are providedfor four other team members located within space 12 a and each presentsinformation similar to the information presented in field 180. As shown,each of the glanceable indicators may be highlighted differently as afunction of when the status of an associated employee is expected tochange. For instance, an indicator 185 is highlighted differently (e.g.red as indicated by the left down to right hatching) than indicator 186to indicate that employee Paul Pink is 14 minutes late for a meeting inspace 12 a. As shown, the “14 m” indicator is also shown in roundbrackets to indicate a late status which is useful to distinguishstatuses for people who are color blind where indicators 186, 185, etc.,are color coded. Other statuses may be indicated via the statusindicators 186, 185, etc., including busy, free, out to lunch, etc.

Referring to FIG. 12, when personal bench tool 112 is selected, apreferences window 210 is opened in the illustrated example which allowsan employee to specify instantaneous preferences for a personal bench.Here, even where an employee's general preferences have already beenstored in database 76 (see again FIG. 3) and may have already been usedto suggest one or more personal benches via a representation 108, anemployee may want a different set of preferences to be used to identifya bench for temporary ownership at a current time. For instance, a firstemployee that generally prefers a bench near a high level of foottraffic may, on a specific day, want a bench that is in a low foottraffic area. Window 210 can be used to specify different benchcharacteristics.

Referring still to FIG. 12, window 210 includes general instructions at211 for selecting bench attributes and attribute fields including asound level field 212, a light intensity field 214, a traffic volumefield 216, a “near team members” field 218, a “near restroom” field 220and a temperature field 222. Each field 212 through 222 provides toolsfor setting parameter preferences. For instance, the light intensityfield 214 includes a 0 through 10 sliding scale 224 where an employeecan move a selection icon 226 about the scale 224 to select differentvalues. Fields 212 and 216 include similar sliding scales 224. Fields218 and 220 are for indicating desire to be near team members and near arestroom, respectively, and each includes Yes and No icons 228, 230 forselecting preference options. Temperature field 222 includes “warm” and“cool” icons 232 for selecting temperature generally. Window 210 alsoincludes a “find bench” icon 234 selectable to submit the preferenceschosen by an employee to the system server 20 for identifying benchesthat meet or come close to meeting an employee's preference set.

As indicated above, if an employee has yet to specify personalpreferences for a personal bench, at least initially, in at least someembodiments, server 20 may use default preferences to identify one ormore benches to suggest to a specific employee. Once an employee usesone of screens 84 once to specify personal preferences, thosepreferences may be automatically stored by server 20 in database 76 forfuture use in any enterprise space (e.g., in any space 12 a, 12 b, etc.,associated with the enterprise). If, after specifying preferences, anemployee subsequently specifies a different set of preferences viaselection of icon 112, in at least some embodiments those newpreferences may be automatically used to update the employee'spreferences for future use in all enterprise spaces. In other cases,there may be a hysteresis type process where preferences are notimmediately changed and, instead, an employee may need to specify a newpreference two or a small subset of times for server 20 to store a newpreference setting.

Referring to FIG. 13, icon 114 can be selected by an employee toidentify affordance configurations within the associated space 12 a thathave equipment to facilitate telepresence session. In FIG. 13, when icon114 is selected as indicted by cross hatching, any affordanceconfiguration having telepresence equipment that is not currently beingused or scheduled to be used in the near future may be highlighted green(see exemplary highlighting 262) or some other color and a camera icon(see icons 260) may be presented with each highlighted space orconfiguration. Instructions in section 103 may indicate that one of thetelepresence afforded spaces can be selected to be reserved. If ahighlighted space is selected, although not shown, a space selectionwindow may open up on screen 84 that includes tools akin to the toolsshown in FIG. 11 for selecting a telepresence afforded configuration foruse.

Other resource revealing tools may be provided in screen section 105where special resources can be reserved or at least their locations canbe presented. For instance, again, where MediaScape type configurationsare provided in a space 12 a, a MediaScape revealing tool may beprovided in section 105 that can be selected to obtain information onavailable MediaScape type configurations. As another instance, there maybe an enhanced privacy configuration tool icon in section 107 or evenseveral enhanced privacy configuration icons, one icon for each ofseveral (e.g., 3) different enhanced privacy configuration sizes, thatcan be selected to see available enhanced privacy configurationshighlighted on representation 108. Here, scheduling windows may beopenable by selecting highlighted spaces or affordance configurations.

In addition to presenting content to an employee recently arriving atspace 12 a or subspace 70, screen 84 may be controlled by a systemserver 20 to present content to an employee leaving the space 12 a orsubspace 70. For instance, in at least some embodiments, in addition tosensed data related to configurations and spaces, the system may seekdata directly from employees that use the configurations and spaces,which can then be used subsequently to better select spaces that meetother employee preferences. To this end, see, for instance, FIG. 14where screen 84 presents a window 270 that includes tools for providingfeedback related to specific spaces used by a specific employee during aprior period (e.g., a few hours) while the employee was present in thespace 12 a. In the illustrated example, employee Jen Black leaving thespace associated with screen 84 used four spaces or affordanceconfigurations during occupancy of the area including personal bench 330a represented by field 272, Team Studio 1 represented by field 274,Enhanced privacy configuration 2 represented by field 276 and TeamStudio 2 represented by field 278. Each field allows an employee to ratethe associated space. Exemplary field 272 includes a rating scale 284with a scale from 0 to 10 and a moveable icon 286 which can be moved tochange a space/configuration rating. Other fields 274, 276 and 2178include similar rating tools. As shown in FIG. 14, in at least someembodiments, each of the spaces or configurations to be graded may behighlighted on map representation 108. In some cases, when one of theselection icons (e.g., 286) is selected, an associated space inrepresentation 108 may be specially highlighted so that the employee isclearly aware of which space is being rated.

FIG. 15 shows an alternate space rating system where a window 299 isprovided that includes a field 290, 292, 294 and 296, for each of thefour spaces/configurations used by an employee including a personalbench 330 a field, a Team Studio 1 field, an enhanced privacyconfiguration 2 field and a Team Studio 2 field, respectively. Here,each of the fields 290, 292, 294 and 296 includes a “Provide feedback”icon (see exemplary icon 298) that can be selected to provide feedbackon an associated space/configuration. When feedback icon 298 isselected, a sub-window 300 is opened which includes additional fields302, 304, 306, 308 and 310 for rating sound, light, traffic volume,temperature and air circulation, respectively, for personal bench 330 a.Field 302 includes a sliding scale 316 with 0 through 10 options and amoveable selector icon for setting a rating value for sound level. Eachof fields 304 and 306 includes a sliding scale similar to scale 316 infield 302. Temperature field 308 includes three selection optionsincluding warm, mid and cool to indicate perceived temperature in thespace associated with the personal bench at 318. Similarly, at 320,field 310 includes High, OK and Low options to indicate perceived aircirculation. Window 300 also includes a submit icon 314 selectable tosubmit an employee's entries in the fields above.

In at least some cases, when an employee provides high ratings for aspecific personal bench or some other affordance configuration (e.g., aspecific team studio, a specific focus station, etc.), server 20 maystore that information for the employee so that it can be subsequentlyused to identify the configuration in the future and suggest thatconfiguration to the employee the next time the employee is in space 12a. In effect, server 20 can take high rankings for specificconfigurations into consideration when identifying benches or otherresources to suggest to specific employees.

In at least some embodiments screen 84 will be controlled toautomatically seek feedback based on spaces used by an employee as theemployee is leaving a space. Thus, the windows in FIGS. 14 and 15 may bepresented automatically when a specific employee is leaving. In othercases, icon 166 for providing feedback may need to be selected asindicated in each of FIGS. 14 and 15 in order to open the feedbackwindows or tools.

In some cases the system server may be programmed to calculate thelikelihood that an employee is leaving a space associated with a screen84 “permanently” or if the employee will likely be back in a relativelyshort time. Here, in some cases “permanently” means that the employee isleaving the space and will not return subsequently the same day. Forinstance, where an employee is leaving a space but is scheduled to beback in that space for another meeting that same day, server 20 may notpoll the employee for feedback when the employee is leaving and mayinstead wait until the employee is likely leaving for the remainder ofthe day (e.g., when the employee has no other scheduled meeting(s) inthe space during the remainder of the day). Similarly, if an employee isscheduled to be located in a space 12 a for several days, server 20 maynot poll the employee for feedback until the employee is sensed leavingthe space 12 a after her last meeting on the last day of the scheduledstay. In this way, the polling for feedback will be perceived as less ofa burden. In a similar vein, if an employee has used 10 spaces over thecourse of a few days of hotelling in a larger space 12 a, server 20 maybe programmed to only seek feedback on the four spaces most utilized bythe employee to avoid annoying the employee with the requirement forexcessive feedback.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 4 and 6, while wireless access point basedtriangulation may be used to identify employee locations as describedabove, in other cases one or more presence sensors 97 may be providedproximate or integrated into screen 84 for sensing employee presence andidentity. While screen 84 is described above as touch sensitive, inother embodiments other interface configurations are contemplated. Forinstance, in at least some cases sensor 97 may be a 3D gesture sensor sothat an employee can simply gesture to interact with content on screen84. For instance, a sensor like the Kinect sensor by Microsoft could beused to sense gestures and move a pointing icon (see again 170 invarious figures) about screen 84 to select on screen icons. Otherinterface configurations are contemplated.

While not shown, other map representations may be accessed by anemployee via screen 84 to show specific space attributes. For instance,in at least some cases server 20 may use real time or historical noisevolume sensed within space 12 a to generate a noise volume map of space12 a to show relative noise levels throughout. As another instance,server 20 may use sensed light in space 12 a to generate a light mapindicating relative light intensities, may use sensed foot traffic inspace 12 a to generate a foot traffic path indicating relative foottraffic volume in different locations of space 12 a, etc. These types ofattribute specific maps, in at least some cases, may be accessible viaadditional control tool icons presented in screen area 105 (see againFIG. 5).

In still other cases, other types of information may be automaticallypresented via screen 84 to help an employee get started with her day.For instance, when an employee arrives at screen 84, a simple list oftasks to be accomplished by an employee may be automatically presentedvia screen 84. As another instance, if the employee has a free slot oftime during her day, server 20 may identify another team member that isalso unscheduled for that time and may suggest a meeting, an affordanceconfiguration for the meeting, etc. As another instance, an arrivingemployee's full day schedule may be automatically presented withspecific meeting information or in some general way such as a simpletime line with bars indicating scheduled blocks of time. For example,see the timeline for Jen Black shown at 173 in FIG. 7. As yet one moreinstance of additional useful information, a map representation 108 mayhighlight all spaces in which Jen Black is scheduled to participate inactivities during a day and may provide time period tags like tag 171 inFIG. 7 for each highlighted space indicating the time when Jen isscheduled to be in the space.

In some embodiments it is contemplated that server 20 will monitoremployee schedules and location and may automatically update benchownership as a function thereof. For instance, where a first employee isscheduled to temporarily own a bench 330 a in space 12 a until 1 PM, ifthe employee schedules another meeting for 2 PM in space 12 a, server 20may automatically change the ownership period of bench 330 a to extendpast the end of the 2 PM period. In this case, server 20 may notify thefirst employee of the bench ownership extension via a simple messagepresented at bench 330 a, via an e-mail or text sent to a personalportable computing device, etc.

In the illustrated example, the space adjacent wall surface 86 andscreen 84 is completely open and does not include any tables, benches,stations or other affordance configurations of any type. The intentionhere is to encourage employees to move through space 51 as quickly aspossible and the lack of tables, chairs and other structure encouragestransition, especially where café configuration 52 with touch downtables and seating structure is located immediately adjacent space 51.

Referring again to FIGS. 4 and 6, exemplary café configuration 52includes an image or video projected onto wall space 82 that forms partof wall 80 on a side of screen 84 opposite space 86. In at least somecases a single ceiling projector may project images into each of areas82 and 86 while in other cases dedicated projectors for each area may beprovided. In at least some embodiments the video projected onto space 82will be selected or generated by the system server to reflect somecondition sensed within the associated space (e.g., subspace 70 in thepresent example). For instance, one parameter or space attribute thatmay drive video selection may be the amount of energy sensed by noise,movement, content generation, etc., within the space 70. Here, wherenoise, movement, etc., is substantial, the server 20 may determine thatthere is substantial energy in the space 70 while low levels of noiseand movement may indicate low energy. A fast moving video may bepresented in space 82 when high energy is sensed in space 70 and arelatively slower moving video may be presented in space 82 when lowenergy is sensed in space 70. For instance, a swirling set of abstractlines as shown at 98 may be sped up or slowed down as a function ofsensed energy. Here, the idea is that employees entering space 52 willbe affected by the imagery presented in the space and will gear theirown energy up or down as a function of the presented imagery.

Other sensed attributes may affect the café imagery. For instance, spacetemperature, lighting, air flow, etc., may drive server 20 to selectdifferent imagery.

In at least some cases, in addition to reflecting energy level in aspace, other attributes related to how the space is being used may alsobe reflected in the projected image. For instance, where employees in aspace are primarily participating in team meetings, the colors in theabstract image may be different (e.g., red) than where most employees inthe space are working independently at temporarily owned benches whichmay be indicated by green. As another instance, where one or more remoteemployees are currently communicating with locally disposed employees,the presented image may be modified in some fashion to distinguish froma case where no remote linkage is occurring. As one other instance, thecafé image may reflect the status of one or more long term team projectsfor a team located in an associated subspace. For instance, where aproject has five main stages, the image presented may be different anddepend at least in part on which stage of the project the team iscurrently working on. The café imagery may reflect one or moreattributes ascribed to the space as opposed to sensed attributes, theimagery may be slow moving or include a peaceful natural scene and if aspace is intended to encourage conversations and collaboration, theimagery may be fast moving or include a city street or other high energyscene.

Thus, in at least some embodiments, the image presented in space 82 isgenerated using real time data collected from an associated subspace(e.g., 70 in FIG. 2) and reflects the energy or some other space useattribute perceived in the space. The imagery can serve as a naturalstimulus to help bring the associated space to life and may serve totrigger interaction between employees. The dynamic visualization isintended to create an atmosphere that helps employees connect. Theimagery is intended to be non-rhythmic sensory stimuli that provides ahumanized and natural ambiance that does not demand any additionaleffort or consciousness attention in at least some embodiments.

In at least some embodiments area 82 is substantially larger than screen84 and area 86 so that the presented imagery can have a substantialimpact on employees located within area 52. For instance, in at leastsome embodiments area 82 may have a width dimension between five feetand fifteen feet and a height dimension between three feet and the fullheight of the wall 80 (e.g., 8-9 feet tall). In some cases structure97/99 or at least a portion thereof may include another wall segment onwhich a portion of the imagery presented in area 82 can extend and/orthe stimulating imagery may be presented on other wall surfaces withinthe general area 52 such as well 77 (see again FIG. 6).

In addition to including area 82 on wall 80, exemplary caféconfiguration 52 includes one or more standing height tables 93 andassociated benches 83 for temporary use by employees located in area 52.Here, in at least some cases, the tables and benches are specificallydesigned and selected to encourage no more than temporary use byemployees as those employees transition into other areas of subspace 70for longer term use. To this end, exemplary tables 93 have relativelythin width dimensions within a range between one foot and two feet sothat it would be difficult at best for any employee to spread out muchmaterial thereon for sharing purposes or during a focused work activity.In addition, by providing benches 83 that are relatively high and thatdo not include backrests, “perches” are provided that may be comfortableover short periods (e.g., a few minutes), but that would becomeuncomfortable for most employees relatively quickly. In particular, thebenches shown at 83 are elongated and extend under associated tablesfrom one side to the other thereof which encourages employees that wantto temporarily perch to sit sideways along the long edges of the tabletops which, again, is not conducive to long term work activities.

As seen best in FIG. 6, a coffee, tea and other refreshments station 97is presented proximate the tables and benches 93 and 83 as are shelvesand closet units 99. Here, employees that are carrying materials whenthey arrive in space 70 may want to set those materials on one of theshelves or avail themselves of the closets at 99.

Referring again to FIGS. 2, 4 and 6, again, as an employee approachessubspace 70, the walls 82 guide the employee's vision toward area 86 toconfirm that the employee is headed toward the right area. As theemployee enters reception area 51, the employee moves generally towardscreen 84. As the employee approaches screen 84, server 20 tracks theemployee's location, accesses information related to the employee'spreferences, team members, and scheduled meetings and, based on thosesuggestion factors and perhaps other factors, identifies one or a subsetof personal benches to suggest to the employee as well as the locationof a next scheduled meeting for the employee, locations of otheremployees on a team with the arriving employee, locations of benchesused by other team members in subspace 70 or generally in space 12 a,etc. Server 20 uses the information associated with the arrivingemployee to generate content as described above which, among otherthings, suggests at least one bench for use by the employee assumingthat the employee's schedule indicates that the employee will be in thegeneral area 12 a for an extended period.

The employee is welcomed by screen 84 and suggestions are presented tothe employee via screen 84. The employee may interact with screencontent as described above and, eventually, takes some step to associatewith one of the suggested benches or a different bench if the employeeso chooses. Next, the employee moves into the café space 52, sets downany materials on one of the tables temporarily, sheds any excessivegarments and grabs a coffee at station 97. While performing these“unwinding” tasks, an energy mirroring video is played in area 82 tohelp ramp the employee's energy up or down given the energy level sensedin other portions of subspace 70. At this time there may be additionalemployees in café space 52 and the employees in space 52 may engage invarious forms of communication as they start to adjust to movement intothe other subspace areas. By the time the employee is ready to move pastthe café space, the employee should be more ready to start whateveractivities she is scheduled to perform in subspace 70.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that screen 84 may alsobe controlled in conjunction with visual indicators 30 a, 30 b, etc., inspace 12 a to guide employees to assigned personal benches and then,also, in at least some embodiments, to other resources to be used by theemployees at different times. For example, in at least some embodiments,a different color may be assigned to each employee that is currentlybeing guided within space 12 a and the visual indicators 30 a, 30 b,etc., may be controlled to present guiding colors to employees as theymove about within space 12 a. For instance, for a first employee, theguiding color may be pink and for a second employee the guiding colormay be blue. Once a first employee reaches her destination, the guidingcolor may be assigned to a different employee to guide the otheremployee from one location to another. Here, if the first employee is tobe guided subsequently to some other space resources, some color unusedto guide another employee at that time may be assigned temporarily tothe first employee for guidance purposes.

Guiding information may be presented in some other way such as viasymbols (e.g., letters, numbers, images, etc.) instead of or in additionto color to aid persons that are color blind. Guiding colors can be usedto find any space or affordance configuration in space 12 a or, indeed,to find any resource (e.g., a restroom, a café space 52, etc.).

In FIG. 16, screen 84 shows an exemplary screen shot that may bepresented after an employee has accepted ownership of a particular benchto notify the employee of an assigned guiding color that can be used tolocate the associated bench. In FIG. 16, instructions in space 103indicate that the employee has selected personal bench 330 a and alsoindicate that the employee's guiding color is pink (as indicated by thehorizontal and vertical hatching) as shown at 305. Once a color has beenassigned to a specific employee, the employee can move into the caféarea, unwind and then move on into the larger space following a stringof visual indicators through space 12 a to the associated personalbench.

Referring again to FIG. 1, a trail of visual indicators is shown at 30a, 30 b, 30 c, 30 d and 30 e that will lead an employee from screen 84in space 51 to personal bench 330 a. Again, each indicator 30 a, 30 b,etc., may include a standalone indicator device that is mounted to awall or other affordance in space 12 a or may include a light device orother indicator device that is integrated into some affordanceconfiguration. Thus, for instance, indicator 30 a may be mounted to awall while indicator 30 e is integrated into bench 330 a. Where anindicator 30 e is integrated into some other assembly, that indicatormay serve multiple functions including more than just providing guidancesignals to employees on the move.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that, as an employee movesthrough space 12 a, server 20 will continue to track the location of theemployee and will only present the employee's assigned visual indicator(e.g., the assigned guiding color) when the employee is located at aposition where the employee can see an illuminated indicator. Inaddition, where one indicator is located at a position where twoemployees are travelling and need guidance, the single indicator may becontrolled to provide guidance to more than one travelling employee bytoggling between two guiding colors, one guiding color for each of thetravelling employees or by presenting each of the guiding indicatorssimultaneously (e.g., half an indicator may be pink and the other halfblue).

Referring now to FIG. 8, a process 140 for helping an employee takeownership of and then locate a personal bench that optimally meets herpreferences is illustrated. At block 142, system server 20 tracks thelocations of all employees in enterprise spaces 12 a, 12 b, etc. Atblock 144, server 20 determines if an employee is located proximate oneof the reception screens 84 and determines the identity of the employee.Where an employee is not located near a reception screen, control loopsback through blocks 142 and 144. Once an employee is identified near ascreen 84, control passes to block 146 where server 20 access thepersonal preference database 76 (see again FIG. 3) and identifiessuggestion factor preferences associated with the identified employee.

Referring still to FIG. 8, at block 148, server 20 identifies one ormore personal benches that are at least somewhat optimized based on thespecific employee's suggestion factors. At block 150, server 20indicates the identified bench and a path (see path 132 in FIG. 16)thereto via the screen 84 adjacent the employee. At block 152, server 20presents other information of interest to the employee via screen 84such as locations of team members, benches assigned to team members,locations of particularly interesting resources (e.g., telepresencesystems, MediaScape systems, etc.).

At decision block 154, server 20 monitors for confirmation from theemployee that the employee intends to temporarily own the suggestedbench. Where no confirming signal is received from the employee, controlpasses to block 156 where the server 20 monitors for other screenselections such as selection of one of the control icons 110, 112, 114,etc. (see again FIG. 5). Where another screen selection has been made,control passes to block 158 where the other selection is processed.Continuing at block 154, if an employee confirms selection of thesuggested bench, control passes to block 160 where server 20 updates thespace schedule 82 (see again FIG. 3) to associate the employee with theselected bench. At block 162 server 20 assigns a visual identifier tothe employee. Here, as indicated above, in many cases the visualindicator will be a specific color that is temporarily assigned to theemployee for guidance purposes (e.g., the identifier is a visualindicator guidance color). In other cases the visual indicator may havesome visually distinguishable graphical characteristic to it so thatcolor blind employees can distinguish their indicator from others.

Referring still to FIG. 8, at block 164, server 20 controls a string ofvisual indicators in space 12 a to guide the employee to her temporarilyowned personal bench. Again, here, the string of guiding indicators maybe controlled to present the employee specific indicator via eachindicator only when the employee is at a location where the employee cansee the specific indicator and may stop presenting the indicator oncethe employee has moved past the indicator on her path to the ownedbench. At block 166, as the employee is traveling to her associatedbench, server 20 may be programmed to use at least a subset of theemployee preferences from database 76 to customize or optimizeaffordances at the associated bench for use by the specific employee.Here, for instance, server 20 may control actuators (e.g., motors) in aheight adjustable leg structure at the associated bench to place a worksurface at a preferred height for the employee. Other affordances thatmay be automatically controlled to optimize for employee preferences ata bench may include but are not limited to heat elements, coolingdevices (e.g., fans or air conditioners), chair adjustments, lightingdevices, white noise or other sound generating devices, etc.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that personal benchownership may be established without requiring any specific action by anemployee other than to travel to the bench. For instance, in some caseswhen an employee arrives in a space and is proximate a reception screen84, server 20 may identify a single bench that is optimal for use by theemployee and may suggest the bench to the employee along with indicatinga visual indicator guidance identifier (e.g. a color). Here, theemployee may glance at screen 84 while passing by and identify theemployee's specific guidance identifier. As the employee moves pastscreen 84, server 20 can recognize that the employee has moved along andmay automatically start controlling the first in a string of visualindicators to present the employee's guidance identifier and guide theemployee to the suggested bench. Where the employee continues along theguidance path, the server 20 will continue to control the next in thestring of visual indicators to guide the employee to the suggestedbench. Where the employee diverges from the indicated path, server 20may be programmed to disassociate the employee with the suggested bench.Here, some amount of deviation may be acceptable without disassociationand, in some cases, server 20 may be able to reroute the employee via amodified string of visual indicators. Once the employee gets to thesuggested bench, server 20 may greet the employee via a messagepresented at the bench and may start to support the employee in waysdescribes hereafter.

In any case, after a bench is suggested to a first employee and whilethe first employee is travelling along a prescribed path to thesuggested bench, an indicator of some type may be controlled at thesuggested bench to indicate ownership by the first employee. If thefirst employee deviates from the path, the ownership indication can bechanged to indicate no owner and that the bench is available for use bysome other employee. By indicating bench ownership after the suggestionand prior to deviation from a path, a situation is avoided in whichanother employee may take ownership of the suggested bench while thefirst employee is travelling to the bench.

It has been recognized that while an employee is travelling to atemporarily owned bench, the employee may observe a different bench thatthe employee would prefer for some reason. In at least some cases it iscontemplated that an employee may simply occupy a different bench thatis not owned by another employee and the act of occupancy may be used asa signal that the employee intends to temporarily own the occupiedbench. In this case, the previously suggested bench would be disownedand opened up for use by other employees.

B. Bench Configuration

Referring now to FIGS. 17 and 18, an exemplary personal benchconfiguration 60 that provides first, second, third and fourth personalbenches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d, respectively, is illustrated.Each of benches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d is similarly constructedand operates in a similar fashion unless indicated otherwise hereafterand therefore, only bench 330 a will be described in detail here in theinterest of simplifying this explanation.

Bench 330 a includes a leg support assembly 332, a work surface assembly340, and a screen assembly 342. Leg support assembly 332 includes firstand second telescoping leg subassemblies and a horizontal beam member338. Each telescoping leg subassembly includes a lower leg structure 334and a telescoping upper leg member 336. The lower leg structure forms avertical channel that receives the upper leg member 336 for slidingvertical motion between a retracted position as shown in FIG. 17 and afully extended position as shown in FIG. 18. When fully retracted, a topsurface 362 of the work surface assembly is at approximately 24 to 28inches high and when fully extended, the top surface 36 is atapproximately 34 to 42 inches high so that the work surface 340 can beused in a seated position or a standing position and can supportemployees of different heights. Although not shown, motors and gearassemblies are provided in each of the lower leg subassemblies 334 fordriving the upper leg members 336 to different extended positions.

Referring still to FIG. 18, horizontal beam 338 extends between top endsof the first and second lower leg structures 334 and provides lateralstability thereto. In addition, although not shown, beam 338 may includea wire management channel or trough in its top surface for receiving andmanaging power and data cables. In the illustrated example, rear ends oflower leg members 334 that form each of the first personal bench 330 aand the second personal bench 330 b are mechanically attached to eachother so that bench 330 b resides immediately adjacent and rearward ofbench 330 a. In at least some embodiments, each lower leg structure 334may also be mechanically fastened via bolts or other mechanicalfastening devices to an ambient floor surface.

Referring to FIGS. 17 and 18 and also to FIGS. 19 through 22, worksurface subassembly 340 includes a table top member 341 and an interfaceconfiguration generally identified by numeral 360. Top member 341 formsa top surface 360 and a bottom surface 363. In at least someembodiments, top member 341 is a rectilinear rigid member constructedusing wood, plywood, laminates, metal, plastic, or any othersubstantially rigid material. In a particularly advantageous embodiment,top member 341 includes a lower substrate member 343 and a top covermember 345 (see FIG. 20) that forms top surface 362 where lower member343 forms an opening 396 that is covered by cover member 345. Here, forinstance, lower member 343 may be a wood or fiber laminate member whiletop cover member 345 includes a thin plastic member that, in at leastsome embodiments, is at least somewhat transparent so that at least somelight directed at an undersurface of member 345 passes there through. Tothis end, see FIG. 21 where each round dotted line circle indicates alight pattern corresponding to light passing through top member 345.

Non-transparent ink, a sticker or other non-transparent indicia may beapplied to an undersurface of member 345 so that a light pattern that isthe opposite of the indicia passes through member 345. Exemplary indiciain FIG. 21 associated with devices 400, 402, 404, 406, 407, 408 and 410include an up arrow, a down arrow, a quiet indicator, a heat indicator,a do not disturb indicator, a fan or air circulation indicator and awhite noise indicator, respectively. In other embodiments indicia may beapplied to the top surface of member 345 opposite sensor devices mountedthere below.

Exemplary interface configuration 360 includes a plurality of sensordevices labeled 400, 402, 404, 406, 408, 410 and 412 that are mountedwithin opening 396 and that butt up against or are adjacent theundersurface of member 345. In the illustrated embodiment, each ofsensor devices 400, 402, 404, 406, 407, 408 and 410 is similarlyconstructed. Exemplary device 410 includes a capacitive sensor assembly420 and an indicator light device 422. The capacitive sensor assembly420 is designed to sense an employee's touch on a top surface of member345 opposite the device 420. Capacitive sensor devices are well knownand therefore are not described here in detail.

Light device 422 may be any type of lighting device including, forinstance, an incandescent light bulb, an LED, a set of LEDs, etc. Insome cases device 422 may only be capable of generating a singleintensity of light while in other cases device 422 will be controllableto generate different light intensities to indicate different states.Similarly, in some cases device 422 may only generate light of a singlecolor while in other cases device 422 may be able to generate light oftwo or more different and clearly discernible colors. Device 422 directslight upward to subtend the undersurface of member 345 and, whereindicia is applied to member 345, causes the area around the indicia tobe illuminated so that the indicia is perceivable when the top surfaceof member 345 is observed by an employee. Hereinafter, unless indicatedotherwise, the dashed round representations 400, 402, 404, 406, 407, 408and 410 in FIG. 21 will be referred to as an up button, a down button, aquiet button, a heat button, a do not disturb button, an air circulationbutton and a white noise button, respectively.

Referring still to FIGS. 20 and 21, device 412 is a plate or surfacetype RF ID reader that can be used to wirelessly read an employee's RFID badge (see again 90 in FIG. 4) or some other employee identifierdevice. Here, for instance, device 412 may include an excitation coildesigned to excite a transmission coil 96 in an employee badge so thatthe badge transmits an employee identifier to device 412 when the badgeis within a sensing zone (e.g., within 3 inches) adjacent the topsurface of member 345.

Each of buttons 400, 402, 404, 406, 407, 408, 410 and device 412 islinked to a processor that can use signals from the buttons and deviceto perform various functions. For instance, the processor may beincluded with bench 330 a or configuration 60 or the system server 20(see gain FIG. 1) may be linked to the buttons and device to receivesignals there from and to use those signal to perform various functions.For instance, while system 10 is intended to facilitate employeeassociation with a specific bench when an employee enters a space asdescribed above, in some cases an employee that is not associated with abench but is in a facility space may want to take temporary ownership ofa proximate bench for a period. In at least some embodiments, device 412allows an employee with a readable badge to claim an un-owned bench forat least temporary use by simply passing the employee's badge overdevice 412. As another instance, the up and down buttons 400 and 402 maybe used by an employee to control leg subassemblies 332 to raise orlower top member 340 to different heights to accommodate userpreferences. Similarly, buttons 406 and 408 related to the heat and fanindicia, respectively, may be used by an employee to adjust heatgenerated by heating element 388 and air circulation controlled by fanassembly 390 (see again FIG. 19). Button 407 is useable to post a do notdisturb indicator as shown in FIG. 27. Button 410 related to the noiseindicia may be used by an employee to adjust the volume of white noisegenerated by speaker 391 (see FIG. 19).

In at least some embodiments signals from at least some of the buttonsin FIG. 21 may cause control of associated actuators to cycle throughdifferent states. For instance, in the case of heating element 388 inFIG. 19, element 388 may be controllable to set heat output to any offirst (e.g., a lowest level) through fifth (e.g. a highest level)different levels. With element 388 initially off, a first activation ofbutton 406 may set element 388 to the first heat generating level, asecond activation may set element 388 to the second level, and so on,until the fifth level is reached, after which a next activation wouldcycle element 388 again to the off state. Similarly, button 408 may beselected multiple times to cycle through different fan speeds and button410 may be selected multiple times to cycle through different volumes ofwhite noise.

Referring still to FIGS. 20 and 21, in at least some embodiments wherewhite noise volume cycles through multiple different levels as button420 is consecutively selected, light device 422 may be controlleddifferently to visually indicate an instantaneous volume level. Forinstance, where white noise can be turned off or to low, medium or highlevels, light device 422 may be able to generate first through fourthlight intensities indicating the off, low, medium and high levels,respectively. Similarly, the light devices associated with buttons 408and 406 may be controllable to indicate different heat element and fanspeed settings.

In at least some embodiments, system server 20 (see again FIG. 1) may beprogrammed to automatically control any of the actuators associated withbench 330 a to modify the environment associated therewith so thatassociated aspects of the environment are consistent with employeepreferences. Thus, for instance, where employee Jen Black prefers towork in a standing position with a work surface height of 36 inches andprefers a temperature of 72 degrees, when Jen Black arrives at screen 84and is associated with bench 330 a, prior to Jen Black arriving at bench330 a, server 20 may automatically adjust upper leg member 336extensions to place top surface 362 at a 36 inch height and may controlheating element 388 to increase the temperature at bench 330 a to 72degrees. In addition to controlling work surface height and heatingelement 388, the system server may automatically control many othertypes of actuators associated with a bench 330 a.

Referring again to FIGS. 17 and 18 and also to FIG. 22, exemplary screenassembly 342 includes a frame structure, first and second flat paneldisplay screens 380 and 382 and a cover assembly 368. The framestructure includes an outer rectilinear frame 370, first and secondhorizontal beam members 372 and 374, respectively, and first and secondbrackets collectively identified by numeral 344. Outer rectilinear frame370 includes first and second spaced apart and vertically arrangedparallel members and first and second spaced apart and parallelhorizontal members that traverse the distance between upper and lowerends of the vertical members, respectively, to form a rectangularcentral frame opening. Horizontal beam 272 is connected at and extendsbetween locations about mid-way along the length of the first and secondvertical frame members. Similarly, horizontal beam 374 is connected atand extends between locations about mid-way between beam 272 and thelower horizontal frame member that forms part of the outer frame 270.

First and second brackets 344 are mounted to lower beam 274 and extendto one side thereof to be mounted to a rear edge of top member 340 viamechanical clamping mechanisms (not illustrated). When brackets 344 aremounted to top member 340, the frame structure is adjacent the rear edgeof member 340 and extends substantially vertically upward therefrom. Inat least some embodiments beam 374 and the rear edge of member 340 mayform a small (e.g., one half inch) gap so that power and data cables canbe passed there through to link computing or other devices to power anddata receptacles that reside under top member 340. Each of the framemembers and rail members 370, 372 and 374 have a thickness dimension(e.g., front to back dimension) that is relatively thin. For instance,in some embodiments the frame members and beams may have a thicknessdimension between one quarter of an inch and two inches and, inparticularly advantageous embodiments, the frame and rail members have athickness dimension between one half an inch and one inch.

Referring still to FIG. 22, screens 380 and 382 are flat panelelectronic displays that have a thickness dimension that is no greaterthan the thickness dimension of the frame and rail members 370, 372 and374. Screen 380 is mounted in an upper left corner of the central frameopening and, in the illustrated example, is supported by rail member 372as shown. Screen 380 is mounted to the frame structure via brackets,screws, or any other type of mechanical fastener so that the front facethereof is facing the general direction of top member 340. Similarly,screen 382 is mounted to the frame structure in the upper right handcorner of the central frame opening via brackets, screws, or any othertype of mechanical fastener so that the front face thereof is facing thegeneral direction of top member 340. Because screens 380 and 382 havethickness dimensions that are equal to or less than the thicknessdimensions of the frame members, the screens 380 and 382 are completelylocated within the space defined by the frame members afterinstallation. Although not shown, power and data cables extend from eachof the screens to power and data receptacles that reside below topmember 340.

Referring yet again to FIG. 22, in at least some embodiments, a fanassembly 384 may also be mounted to the screen frame assembly via sometype of mechanical fastener. Fan assembly 384 is a thin profile fan andhas a thickness dimension that is less than the thickness dimension ofthe frame and beam members 370, 372, 374 so that, when mounted withinthe frame opening, the fan is completely located within the spacedefined by the frame members. In the illustrated example, fan 384 ismounted between screens 380 and 382 and is supported by the upperhorizontal rail member 372.

Referring still to FIG. 22, cover assembly 368 includes a fabricenvelope or sock 367 and a closure sub-assembly 364. Sock 367 includesfirst and second substantially rectangular sheets of fabric materialthat are sewn together along a top edge and first and second lateraledges to form an internal substantially rectangular pocket that is openalong a lower edge at 366. In the alternative, sock 367 may include asubstantially rectangular and seamless knit sock that is closed along atop end and along first and second lateral ends and that is open at 366.In at least some embodiments the pocket has a shape substantiallysimilar to the shape formed by frame structure 370. In some cases, thepocket is slightly smaller than the frame structure dimensions and thefabric is stretchable so that the fabric can be stretched to fit overthe frame structure 370. Once installed on the frame 370, sock 367should be taught both vertically and horizontally. Hereinafter, unlessindicated otherwise, once installed on the frame 370, the phrase “frontfacing fabric” will be used to refer to the portion of fabric sock 367that resides on the same side of frame 370 as top member 340 and thephrase “rear facing fabric” will be used to refer to the portion of sock367 that resides on the side of frame 370 opposite top member 340.

Referring still to FIG. 22, first and second slits 369 are formed in alower edge of the front facing fabric that are aligned with brackets 344so that each bracket is received in one of the slits 369 upon sockinstallation. A closure mechanism or configuration is provided along thelower edges of the front and rear facing fabric sheets so that sock 367can be closed around and therefore secures to frame structure 370. Forinstance, the closure mechanism may include Velcro strips 364 along thelower edges of the front and rear facing fabric sheets.

To install sock 367 on frame structure 370, the open lower end of thepocket at 366 is aligned with the frame structure 370 and sock 367 isforced over structure 370. As sock 367 is slid down, brackets 344 arereceived in slits 369 and eventually the lower ends of the fabric sockare pulled below the bottom member of frame 370 and are fastened via theVelcro strips or other fastening mechanism. In at least some cases,power and data cables will pass through open portions of the sock 367along the closed lower edge.

Referring still to FIG. 22, at least sections of the front facing fabricportion of sock 367 are specifically designed to pass display screenlight from screens 380 and 382 while obstructing a view through the sock367 into the pocket defined thereby. Thus, for instance, in FIG. 18,sections 348 and 350 of sock 367 may have an extremely small knitpattern that is akin to nylon or a similar fabric material so that lightfrom screens 380 and 382 located there behind can be seen there through.Similarly, in at least some cases at least the portion of the frontfacing fabric portion of sock 367 that is aligned with fan assembly 384is designed to pass air blown from fan 384. While sock 367 may have manydifferent colors and in fact may even have a colored pattern on sectionsthereof or generally, at least some embodiments include a black coloredfabric which, it has been found, hides the internal area of sock 367 andcomponents therein particularly well.

While some embodiments may have different knit patterns at sock sections348 and 350 than at other areas of the sock 367, in at least someembodiments, at least the front facing fabric portion of sock 367 mayhave a uniform knit pattern so that the front facing fabric has auniform appearance when the screens 380 and 382 are turned off or arecontrolled to present an all black image. In at least some embodimentsthe rear facing fabric portion of sock 367 may have a different knitpattern than the front facing fabric. In some cases the rear facingfabric will be knot to be completely light opaque. In other cases, therear facing fabric will be selected so that when combined with the frontfacing fabric knit, no or substantially no light passes through thecombination of fabrics. In still other embodiments the entire sock 367may be knit with the same pattern so that the entire sock has the sameappearance. In still other embodiments, edge portions of the sock 367may have a different knit pattern that is more stretchable than thefront and rear facing fabric sections for one or both of functional andaesthetic reasons. In any case, at least the sections 348 and 350 of thefront facing fabric that cover the screens 348 and 350 are knit to passmuch of the light generated by each of the screens 348 and 350.

Referring to FIG. 23 and still to FIG. 22, in operation, when screens380 and 382 are off or are generating a completely black image, thescreen assembly 342 should have a substantially uniform appearance assock 367 blocks an employee's view into the sock pocket. When an imageis generated on either of the screens 380 or 382, the image can be seenthrough sock 367. Because the sock has a substantially uniformappearance, an employee observing the screen cannot see that the imagesare presented via two separate screens 380 and 382 and instead has theperception that a large flat panel screen is located within the assembly342. Two small screens are often less expensive than one large screenand therefore the two screen assembly may be a less expensivealternative to a configuration including one large screen.

In at least some particularly advantageous embodiments, the screens 380and 382 are not made available to employees for accessing personalcontent and instead are provided for the sole purpose of managing use ofspace affordances as well as for encouraging good work behavior withinenterprise space. While the sock fabric over the screens still allowssufficient screen light to pass through to facilitate space affordancemanagement, the fabric allows the screens 380 and 382 to sort of fadeoff and be completely hidden when no information is presented via thescreens 380 and 382. Thus, while presented information is observable,the information is presented in a way that is, in reality, in thebackground and only secondary to content that an employee may beobserving on her primary laptop or other computer displays screensupported on top surface 362. Thus, the space management content issubtly presented to a bench owning employee. The ways in which screens380 and 382 may help manage space and encourage behavior are describedin greater detail hereafter.

Referring to FIG. 24, a second embodiments 324 a of an exemplary screenassembly is illustrated. Assembly 324 a is similar to the assembly 324shown in many respects and therefore, in the interest of simplifyingthis explanation, only differences between the two embodiments will bedescribed here in detail. The primary difference between assembly 324and assembly 324 a is that assembly 324 a includes one large flat paneldisplay screen 383 mounted in an outer frame 320 a as opposed to twosmaller display screens 380 and 382 as in FIG. 22. In any embodimentincluding large screen 383, the entire front facing fabric panel of sock367 will be knit to pass screen light or images while substantiallyhiding the inside of the sock pocket. Here, instead of only being ableto present images at the upper right and left corners of the screenassembly 342 as in FIG. 23, images or other content may be presented atany location of the front facing surface of screen 383.

Just as different employees will prefer different ambient temperatures,different rates of air flow, different work surface heights, etc., ithas been recognized that different employees will also have differentscreen arrangement preferences. For this reason, in at least someembodiments, different screen arrangements may be provided at differentpersonal benches in a four pack configuration or, in the alternative,different configurations 60 may have different screen shapes that afforddifferent levels of privacy to employees. Thus, in FIGS. 17 and 18, theprimary difference between the personal benches 330 b, 330 c and 330 dand bench 330 a is that the screen assemblies associated with each ofbenches 330 b, 330 c and 330 d are different than the screen assembliesassociated with bench 330 a. To this end, referring also to FIG. 25,bench 330 b includes a screen assembly 354 that has two differentsections including a rear section 420 and a side section 422. Rearsection 420 is similar to screen assembly 324 described above, albeitincluding only a single small flat panel screen mounted within a framestructure behind sock section 424 as opposed to two small screens. Theside section 422 extends from a right edge of the rear section 420 andgenerally along a lateral side edge of a work surface top member 421associated with bench 330 b. A second small flat panel screen is mountedin the side section 422 behind sock portion 426 to face the space overtop member 421. In other cases the screens at each configuration 60 willhave identical or substantially identical shapes and constructions.

While not shown, a frame structure having the general shape shown inFIG. 25 with dual planar sections and a curved section there between isprovided and a fabric sock is stretched over than frame to form theshape illustrated. Here, the screens behind sock sections 424 and 426can be controlled to provide content as described hereafter. In thiscase, the sock has a substantially uniform appearance and thecombination of the sock, frame and screens presents the illusion thatimages generated on the screens are part of a curved emissive structure.

Referring again to FIGS. 17 and 18, bench 330 c includes a “stepped”screen assembly 352 that has lateral rectangular sections which extendto different heights and a central section that angles upward from alower lateral section to the upper lateral section. Here, an internalframe structure forms the stepped shape in general. A single small flatpanel display screen is mounted to the internal frame adjacent a socksection 359. A sock forms a pocket generally shaped like the internalframe and is stretched thereon and secured as described above. Here,when the screen behind fabric section 359 generates an image, the imageis seen through the fabric sock. Fourth bench 330 d has a configurationthat is similar to the configuration of bench 330 c with a steppedscreen assembly, albeit where the stepped screen assembly steps in thedirection opposite screen assembly 352. Thus, when the work surfaces atbenches 330 c and 330 d are at the same height, the top edges of thescreen assemblies at benches 330 c and 330 d are aligned as shown inFIG. 17. Consistent with the discussion above, referring again to FIG.3, another employee preference stored in database 76 may be bench screenarrangement. Many other screen configurations that have different shapesto afford different levels of privacy are contemplated.

Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, it will be assumed that thescreen assembly 342 in FIG. 23 and in the figures that follow isassociated with bench 330 a. In addition, it will be assumed that screen352 shown in FIG. 32 is associated with personal bench 330 c.

Referring again to FIG. 23, screens 380 and 382 at bench 330 a may becontrolled by system server 20 to perform different tasks at differenttimes and depending upon specific employee ownership. For instance, whenno employee is associated with bench 330 a, either one of the screens380 or 382 may be used as part of an employee visual indicator guidancesystem to guide an employee about within space 12 a (see again FIG. 1).For instance, see that the area of screen 380 labeled 30 e is verticallyand horizontally cross hatched to indicate a pink color. The pink colormay be presented as an employee is moving through space 12 a to guidethat employee to a different personal bench as described above. In othercases, where an employee is travelling to a specific conference space inarea 12 a that is remote from a current location, area or visualindicator 30 a may be illuminated pink as a guide to the employee alongone leg of her travel. When an employee moves within sight of anassigned bench, an indicator 30 e that is presented by the assignedbench may present a pulsing pink color as an indication of a finaldestination for the employee and to distinguish that bench from othersalong the employee's travel path. After a first employee has takenownership of a bench and prior to the employee arriving at the bench,server 20 may control devices at the bench to indicate ownership toother employees in the area to avoid a case where a different employeetakes control or ownership of the bench prior to the first employeearriving at the bench. For instance, lighting devices at the bench maygenerate yellow light to indicate a travelling owner.

Referring still to FIG. 23, prior to or when an employee arrives at anassigned personal bench 330 a, a salutation may be presented by one ofscreens 380 and 382. For instance, see in FIG. 23 that screen 382presents the welcoming phrase “Welcome Jen Black”, along with someinformation about the current time and environmental parameters (e.g., adate, a time, current temperature, etc.).

Shortly after (e.g., 3 minutes after) an employee settles in at bench330 a, the welcoming salutation may be automatically removed (e.g., fadeaway) and be replaced by employee identifying information such as theemployee's name. To this end, see FIG. 27 where screen 382 presents thename “Jen Black” as a sort of name plate for the employee thattemporarily owns the bench. In addition, while an owning employee ispresent at a bench, some visual indicators may be controlled to indicateownership (e.g., a green edge lit device or the like).

In at least some embodiments, an employee may be able to specify othertypes of information that the employee would like to have server 20present upon arrival at an owned bench or other affordanceconfiguration. For instance, server 20 may be able to run a plurality ofwidgets to generate different types of real time information like thecurrent date and time, outside temperature, recent sports team updates,locations or statuses of team members or other specific employees, anemployee task list, etc. and may use content from the widgets topopulate different sections of the screens 380 and 382. To this end seethe exemplary date, time and weather information presented on screen 382in FIG. 23.

In addition to operating as a temporary employee guidance visualindicator, to welcoming an associated employee, and to presentingidentifying information for an associated employee, in at least someembodiments it is contemplated that one or both of screens 380 and 382may be used as output devices in an employee preference signalingsystem. To this end, it has been recognized that in most cases employeesdesire to be respectful of their co-worker's time and work environmentpreferences. One problem that can occur in generally open spaceenvironments is that employees are unaware of co-worker's instantaneouspreferences and, in many cases, coworkers will not feel comfortableconfronting each other when those preferences are not met. This isparticularly true in the case of sound or noise preferences where aco-worker may either desire or need her work environment to be quiet andanother employee in her general area is unaware of her preference andtherefore makes no effort to minimize sound. In this case, theco-worker's options are to confront the employee or ignore the employee,neither of which are particularly appealing.

To address the unexpressed preferences problem, in at least someembodiments of the present disclosure a signaling system is providedwhere each employee using one of the personal benches (e.g., 330 a, 330b, etc.) shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 can signal to other employees at otheradjacent benches, that the employee desires or needs a quietenvironment. In this regard, see the exemplary sound preferenceindicator 450 shown in FIGS. 23 and 26 that may be provided by server 20on screen 380. The idea here is that any time any employee at any one ofthe adjacent benches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d desires a quietenvironment, the employee can simply indicate so by changing theappearance of indicator 450. In at least some cases a separate indicatormay be presented via a screen 380 at each of the personal benches 330 a,330 b, 330 c and 330 d so that any employee at any of the benches has anindication when any other employee at one of those benches has requesteda quiet environment. Thus, see FIG. 32 where separate instances ofindicator 450 are provided by screens 359 and 380 at adjacent personalbenches.

In some cases each indictor 450 may be extremely simple such as forinstance, a symbol where the color of the symbol is changed to indicatedifferent sound preferences. For instance, each symbol instance 450 maybe green when no employee has indicated a preference for quiet and maybe changed to red when at least one employee at configuration 60 hasindicated a quiet preference.

In other cases, each indicator 450 may include separate indicators foreach of several personal benches located proximate a specific bench. Forinstance, see in FIG. 26 that indicator 450 includes four separateindicator segments 460, 462, 464 and 466 that are arranged as fourquarters of a circular shape. In addition to showing sound preferenceindicator 450, FIG. 26 also shows a top plan view of the benches 330 a,330 b, 330 c and 330 d associated with configuration 60 in FIGS. 17 and18. The dashed line arrows in FIG. 26 indicate associations of benches330 a through 330 d to the indicator segments. In FIG. 26, the firstquarter indicator 460 corresponds to first bench 330 a, second quarterindicator 462 corresponds to the second bench 330 b, the third quarterindicator 464 corresponds to third bench 330 c and the fourth quarterindicator 466 corresponds to fourth bench 330 d.

Indicator quarter segments 460, 462, 464 and 466 are arranged to mirrorthe layout of corresponding benches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d,respectively. For instance, lower right hand segment 466 is in the samejuxtaposition with respect to segments 460, 462 and 464 as is thecorresponding fourth and lower right hand bench 330 d to the otherbenches 330 a, 330 b and 330 c.

In operation, in addition to indicating that at least one employee atone of the benches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d has requested quiet,indicator segments 460, 462, 464 and 466 can be controlled to indicatewhich bench is occupied by an employee that has expressed a desire forquiet. Thus, for instance, in FIG. 26, if no employee at configuration60 has requested quiet, each of segments 460, 462, 463 and 466 may begreen. If an employee at bench 330 a has requested quiet, correspondingindicator 460 may be changed from green to red to indicate that theemployee at the corresponding station 330 a has requested quiet whilethe other three segments 462, 464 and 466 remain green. If a secondemployee at bench 330 c requests quiet also, segment 464 associated withbench 330 c may also be turned red.

Referring yet again to FIG. 26, as indicated above, a separate indicator450 may be presented at each of benches 330 a, 330 b, 330 c and 330 d soemployees at each bench have an indication of quiet preferences atconfiguration 60. Because benches 330 a and 330 c face in a directionopposite benches 330 b and 330 d, the segments in indicators 450presented at benches 330 a and 330 c will align differently with thebenches 330 a through 330 d than will the segments in indicators atbenches 330 b and 330 d. Thus, for instance, in FIG. 26, when segment466 is red and the other segments 460, 462 and 464 are green at each ofbenches 330 b and 330 d to indicate that the employee at bench 330 d hasrequested quiet, segment 460 will be red and the other segments will begreen at benches 330 a and 330 c to indicate that the employee at bench330 d has requested quiet.

In at least some cases indicators 450 will be provided to support peoplewho are color blind by changing the appearance of the indicator 450 whenthe quiet preference changes. To this end, see yet again FIG. 26 where,in addition to including inner segments 460, 462, 464 and 466, indicator450 includes outer segments 468, 470, 472 and 474 that are associatedwith the inner segments 460, 462, 464 and 466, respectively. In thiscase, in addition to or instead of changing segment color from green tored to indicate different quiet preferences, the outer segments 468,470, 472 and 474 may be turned off and on to indicate quiet preferencerequests. For example, where no employee at configuration 60 hasrequested quiet, green segments 460, 462, 464 and 466 may be presentedand the outer segments may not be presented. If an employee at station330 d requests quiet, in addition to changing segment 466 to red, server20 may present a red outer segment 474. Here, a color blind employeeshould be able to perceive that segment 474 is presented while the othersegments 468, 470 and 472 are not presented and therefore should be ableto discern that the employee at bench 330 d associated with segment 474has requested quiet.

Referring again to FIG. 21, button 404 may be selectable to togglebetween a quiet request and no request. Thus, where an employee selectsbutton 404 a first time, server 20 may issue a quiet preference and whenthe employee selects button 404 a second time, the server 20 may toggleback to the no request state.

Even when a quiet preference has been expressed and is indicated viaindicators 450, employees may forget the preference request at times andmay start a conversation or otherwise generate sound in an area. Whilean employee that requested quiet could remind other employees in thearea that she wants a quiet environment, the need for such confrontationwill make at least some employees uncomfortable.

To address the quiet reminder issue, in at least some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, sound sensors may be provided throughout a space 12a to generate data useable to assess if sound volume is above somethreshold level in a subarea of space 12 a and, where volume is abovethe threshold level, a quiet reminder may be presented via the screens380 and 382 in the subarea. For instance, see again FIG. 19 where asound sensor 453 (e.g., a microphone) is shown mounted to the undersideof work surface top member 340 for measuring the level of soundgenerated at an associated bench. See also FIG. 27 where a quietreminder indicator 452 is shown. Here, if the volume of sound sensed bysensor 453 is above a threshold level, server 20 may present indicator452 via screen 380. The indicator 452 may be presented until theexcessive volume subsides or for a few seconds thereafter. The indicator452 may be presented at each bench in a configuration 60 where volumelevel is above the threshold level at at least one of the configuration60 benches or may only be presented at specific benches where the volumeexceeds the threshold level.

In at least some cases where at least one sound sensor (e.g.,microphone) is located at or at least proximate each personal bench,server 20 may run a program on received sounds at a set of sound sensorsto identify one or a small group of benches from which the excessivevolume is emanating and may only provide the quiet reminder indicator452 at that bench or set of benches. For instance, in FIG. 26, where anemployee at bench 330 a is using a phone to talk loudly to a remoteperson, the volume at each of benches 330 a through 330 d may exceed thethreshold level even though only the employee at bench 330 a is speakingloudly. Here, the sound sensors (e.g., 453) at each of the benches 330 athrough 330 d may pick up sound that exceeds the threshold level.However, by comparing the picked up sounds, server 20 may be programmedto recognize that the picked up voice signal is the same voice signal ateach bench and that the signal is substantially louder at bench 330 athan it is at the other benches. In this case, server 20 may beprogrammed to recognize that the sound is emanating from bench 330 a andtherefore may only present the quiet reminder indicator 452 at bench 330a.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that when an employee hasrequested quiet at a bench and temporarily leaves the bench (e.g., goesto a rest room), the system may sense that the employee has at leasttemporarily left the bench and may change the quiet preference statusindicated to others in the area. Thus, for instance, referring yet againto FIG. 26, if a first employee at bench 330 d has expressed apreference for quiet which is indicated by making segment 466 red, ifthe first employee gets up and leaves bench 330 d, the location trackingsystem in space 12 a may be used to recognize that the first employeehas left bench 330 d and segment 466 may be changed to green. In thealternative, in the same set of circumstances, when the first employeeat least temporarily leaves bench 330 d, server 20 may change segment466 to yellow to indicate that the employee associated with bench 330 dis only temporarily gone and that, when she returns, she will continueto prefer a quiet environment. Thus, the change is status of segment 466should indicate to others at configuration 60 that they can converse orotherwise perform relatively noisy tasks for at least some time. In thisexample, when the first employee is on her way back to bench 330 d, whenthe employee gets within some threshold distance (e.g., 30 feet) frombench 330 d, server 20 may change segment 466 back to red prior to herarrival at bench 330 d to indicate to others at configuration 60 thatthe first employee is returning.

Referring now to FIG. 28, exemplary four quarter indicator 450 is shownat a time when no employee at configuration 60 has indicated a quitpreference. Consistent with the above description, only the innersegments 460, 462, 464 and 466 are shown. Each of segments 460, 462, 464and 466 may be colored green indicating that no one has requested quiteat configuration 60.

Now assume that first and second employees at benches 330 a and 330 bhave each indicated that they prefer a quiet environment. In FIG. 29,the quiet preferences of employees at benches 330 a through 330 d areindicated by crosshatching which indicates a quiet preference requestand no cross hatching which indicates no quite preference request. InFIG. 29, each of segments 460 and 462 are shown highlighted via crosshatching to indicate a red color. In addition, outer segments 468 and470 are now presented to aid color blind employees in assessing thequiet request status. Segments 464 and 466 remain green in this example.

In some cases the quiet indicator may default to indicate that norequest for quiet has been issued and therefore employees that want aquiet environment would have to affirmatively generate a quiet request.In other cases, the quiet indicator may default to indicate quiet andemployees would have to affirmatively indicate that they do not careabout the volume of noise in a space. In some cases the quiet indicatordefault may be different in different subareas of a space 12 a, wheresome areas designated to be quiet may default to indicate quiet andother areas designated to be less quiet may default to indicate theopposite state.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that when an employee isassociate with one personal bench but there is a different bench thatmore closely meets the employee's preferences, server 20 may controlscreens 380 and 382 to suggest a different bench association. Forinstance, assume that a first employee at bench 330 a in FIG. 29 hasindicated a preference for quiet as reflected by the cross hatchedsegments 460 and 468. Also assume that the quiet volume threshold isrepeatedly exceeded by other employees at benches 330 b, 330 c and 330 dover a short period of time. Moreover, referring again to FIG. 1, assumethat server 20 is monitoring sound volume at bench 330 e in the lowerleft hand corner of space 12 a as illustrated and that the volume levelat bench 330 e is relatively low. In this case, server 20 may beprogrammed to recognize that the first employee's sound preference isbest achieved at bench 330 e instead of at bench 330 a and may,therefore, suggest via screen 382 that the first employee move to bench330 e. To this end, see FIG. 30 where server 20 suggests a bench changeto the first employee. Here, if the first employee decides to move tothe newly suggested station, server 20 may assign a visual indicatorguidance color (e.g., pink, blue, orange, etc.) to the first employeeand then illuminate a string of the visual guidance indicators with theassigned color to guide the employee to the new space. In this regard,see the assigned guidance color at 471 and the string of visualindicators 30 f, 30 g, 30 h and 30 i in FIG. 30 illuminated with theguidance color to lead the first employee to the new bench.

In a similar fashion, screens 380 and 382 may be driven by server 20 toautomatically provide other information to an employee. For instance,system server 20 may track an employee's schedule and provide schedulewarnings to the employee. For example, see FIG. 31 where server 20presents a scheduling message to Jen Black via screen 382 indicatingthat a next meeting starts in 10 minutes in Team Studio 2. See also thatthe server suggests that Jen Black take her supplies with her andassociate with a different bench after her meeting. Here, the server 20may suggest a different bench based on the employee's preferences,locations of team members after the employee's next meeting and thelocation of Team Studio 2.

As in the case of FIG. 30, in FIG. 31, the server selects a visualguidance color for the employee and indicates the color at 471. Inaddition, server 20 illuminates a string of visual guidance indicatorswith the assigned color to guide the employee to Team Studio 2. In thisregard, see the assigned guidance color at 471 and the string of visualindicators 30 j, 30 k, 30 l and 30 m in FIG. 31 illuminated with theguidance color to lead Jen Black to Team Studio 2.

As another instance, while a first employee is working at a personalbench, if a second employee on the first employee's team arrives in thegeneral area, server 20 may present a message to the first employee viaone of screens 380 or 382 indicating that the second employee hasarrived. The message may be text or, in some cases, may show thelocation of the arriving employee on a space map. Similarly, if thesecond employee assumes ownership of a personal bench, server 20 maypresent a message via one of screens 380 or 382 indicating which benchthe second employee temporarily owns. If the second employee has anunscheduled period in his day, server 20 may indicate the unscheduledperiod upon arrival of the second employee or a few minutes before itoccurs so that the first employee can determine if she should attempt animpromptu meeting with the second employee.

In at least some cases, server 20 may be programmed to only presentmessages to a bench user at specific times. For instance, server 20 mayonly present messages to an employee at a bench within 10 minutes of anytransition in the employee's schedule (e.g., within the first tenminutes after a transition to the bench from some other activity andwithin the ten minutes prior to a transition from the bench to a nextscheduled activity) so that the messages do not disrupt flow of employeeactivities at the bench. As another instance, server 20 may only presentmessages to an employee at specific times (e.g., at lunch, during a 2 pmbreak, etc.) specified in employee preferences.

As yet one other instance, if a first employee associated with a benchgets up and leaves the bench for some reason, server 20 mayautomatically provide a message via screen 380 and/or screen 382 at theassociated bench indicating that the employee has left but intends toreturn to the bench. Where the employee has left an associated stationand is at a scheduled meeting, server 20 may determine the duration ofthe scheduled meeting from the employee's schedule or from a spaceschedule and may include a likely return time for the absent employee tothe bench.

A do not disturb indicator 439 (see FIG. 27) may be provided that can becontrolled by an employee to indicate that the employee does not want tobe disturbed by others. In some cases the do not disturb indicator maybe in addition to the quiet preference indicator while in other casesthe do not disturb indicator may be provided instead of the quietpreference indicator.

In addition to the screen 342 and 342 a constructions described abovewith reference to FIGS. 22 and 24 above, other screen constructions arecontemplated. For instance see FIG. 33 where other exemplary screens 342b and 352 b are show. Screen 352 b is similar to screen 352 shown inFIG. 32 except that screen 352 b also includes an edge light indicatordevice 495 along the angled portion of the top edge of the assembly 352b. Screen assembly 342 b also, similarly, has an edge light indicatordevice 493 formed in the upper portion of the lateral vertical edge thatis adjacent screen assembly 352 b. Here, it is contemplated that theedge light devices 493 and 495 may be controlled to generate differentcolor light at different times. For instance, in some cases each device493 and 495 may be controlled to function as one of the guidance visualindicators in the system to guide employees within space 12 a todifferent resources. At other times, devices 493 and 495 may becontrolled as part of the preference indicator system. For instance,where an employee at the bench including screen assembly 342 b has notindicated a preference for quiet, device 493 may be controlled togenerate green light and, after the employee indicates a quitepreference, device 493 may generate red light. Because device 493 is anedge light, light generated thereby is visible at the bench associatedwith screen assembly 352 b as well as by an employee at a bench that isdiagonally juxtaposed within the bench including device 493 (e.g., seethe diagonal benches 330 a and 330 d again in FIG. 17).

Referring still to FIG. 33, device 495 may be controlled in a fashionsimilar to device 493 as a guidance indicator. Device 495 isadvantageously positioned to be viewed, at least at times, by employeesat each of the four benches in a configuration 60. To this end, device495 can be viewed by an employee at the bench including screen 352 b.Device 495 is low enough that an employee at the bench opposite thebench including screen assembly 352 b should also be able to see device495. Because device 495 is angled, employees at the benches that arelaterally adjacent and diagonally juxtaposed to the bench includingscreen assembly 352 b should also be able to see device 495.

Although not shown, in some embodiments, screens akin to screen 352 b inFIG. 33 may be provided at each of four benches in a configuration 60where the lower height ends of the screens are centrally located withrespect to the configuration 60. In this case, indicator devices like495 would be visible from each of the four benches in a configuration,at least when the screen assemblies are at the same height levels.

Referring still to FIG. 33, device 495 is shown as a device separatefrom screen 359. In an alternative design, screen 380 a may have acurved emissive edge to it and therefore, a single curved edge screen380 a may provide both a flat emissive surface for signaling as well asthe edge indicator 493. In this regard, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/500,091 which was filed on Sep. 29, 2014 and which is titled “CurvedDisplay And Curved Display Support” describes curved display systems andis incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

In other embodiments, a large flat panel display screen may not becovered with a fabric sock. For instance, see again FIG. 24 where asingle large screen 383 is provided. In FIG. 24, the sock 367 may not beprovided. In this case, additional personalizing content may beautomatically provided on screen 383 when an employee is associatedtherewith. For instance, an employee may want family pictures presentedon screen 383 or an image of a nature scene or something to that effect.In still other embodiments, a simple large flat panel display includingat least one curved edge may replace the screen assembly in FIG. 24completely and signaling may be controlled on the flat surface of thatscreen or on one of the emissive edges in any of the ways describedherein. In still other embodiments one or two small flat panel displaysmay be mounted on the outside of a fabric screen assembly to provide allor a subset of the functions described above with respect to screens 380and 382.

In still other embodiments visual indications may be provided via benchaffordances in other ways. For instance, see again FIG. 17 where bench330 a includes an upwardly aligned projector 503 that can project animage 505 on an ambient ceiling surface 501. Here, at least some of thesignally described in this disclosure may be presented on ceilingsurface 501. For instance, guidance indicators may be provided on aceiling surface, quiet preferences may be projected on a ceilingsurface, etc. In this case, because the ceiling surface 501 aboveconfiguration 60 is visible from all benches associated with theconfiguration, it may be that only one projector is required to presentsignaling to all configuration 60 stations. Similarly, see FIG. 19 wherea projector 507 is mounted to the undersurface 363 of a work surface topmember 340 to project signaling at 509 on an ambient floor surface 511.Here, any signaling described in this disclosure could be presented onthe floor surface. In still other cases, edge lighting may be providedin one or several edges or edge sections of table top member 341 orlight devices may be mounted to the under surface of member 341 tocreate a glowing light effect below top member 341 for signalingpurposes.

Where bench devices are used as visual guidance devices in a space 12 a,server 20 may be programmed to, if possible, only use bench deviceslocated at benches that are not currently owned by an employee forguidance activities. Thus, for instance, where first, second and thirdbenches are located along an employee's path through space 12 a suchthat signaling devices associated with each of the three benches areviewable from a specific location along the path and the first andsecond benches are currently owned by employees, server 20 would selectthe third bench and only control the third benches indicator device tofacilitate guidance. In this way, while a bench device is used tovisually guide an employee through the space 12 a, the guidance activityshould not disturb the employees that own the first and second benches.

In at least some cases server 20 may be programmed to select paths toresources in space 12 a based on locations of benches and otherresources instantaneously owned by other employees. For instance, wherefive employees are located in a quiet subarea of space 12 a and a sixthemployee uses a reception screen to take ownership of another benchlocated on the other side of the quiet subarea, server 20 may select anindirect path to the bench owned by the sixth employee so as to avoidadditional foot traffic past the quiet subarea. Similarly, server 20may, in effect, cause some subspace areas to be quiet or to have minimalfoot traffic in a dynamic fashion by routing employees along paths thatavoid the subspace areas.

In at least some embodiments a bench configuration 60 may be used withother subassemblies designed to perform other functions such asaffording additional privacy, providing storage locations for a book bagor brief case, etc. To this end, see again FIG. 17 where a shelvingassembly 55 is shown adjacent a lateral edge of configuration 60. Shelfassembly 55 includes rigid planar members that are assembled to form astorage space 562 that opens to the side on which configuration 60resides adjacent benches 330 c and 330 d. A shelf member 656 is providedin space 652 and sliding doors may be provided below shelf member 656 toprovide at least some concealed storage space.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that a sensor device 658may be provided in space 652 for sensing if any objects are located inspace 652. Here, for instance, if a briefcase 660 is located in space652, the sensor 658 would generate a signal indicating that an object islocated in space 658. The object presence signal would be provided tothe system server 20 for processing. In some cases the space 652 will bedivided by wall members 659 or shelf members into different spaces to beused by employees associated with each of the benches 330 a, 330 b, etc.In this case, a separate object sensor 658 may be provided in each ofthe subspaces.

When an employee leaves a bench associated with a storage space 652 andan object belonging to the employee is left in the space 652, systemserver 20 may be programmed to provide a signal to the employee that theobject has been left behind. Thus, for instance, the server 20 maytransmit an e-mail or other message to the employee warning that theobject has been left. As another example, server 20 may be programmed touse one or more of the reception display screens 84 to indicate to theemployee that the object has been left behind.

Referring yet again to FIG. 17, instead of or in addition to storageassembly 650, storage shelves may be provided for one, a subset or eachof the configuration 60 benches. To this end, see exemplary shelfassembly 670 that is mounted to the lower leg structure 332 and thatforms an upwardly opening space 672. A bag, briefcase or other suppliesor materials may be placed in space 672 for storage. An object sensor674 is shown in space 672 for sensing when an object is present in thatspace.

Referring again to FIG. 17, in at least some embodiments, a rear wallmember 654 of the shelf assembly 650 may be formed of opacitycontrollable glass so that the degree of transparency of that member canbe adjusted from essentially clear to substantially completely opaque.Here, server 210 may automatically control opacity of member 654 as afunction of preferences of employees that use benches at configuration60. In other cases, controls may be provided at 360 to control wallopacity via employee commands.

Referring to FIG. 33, in at least some embodiments it is contemplatedthat a server 20 may be able to present a map representation as at 519via screen 382 to show resource locations to an employee using a bench330 a. A control button 405 in FIG. 21 may be provided as part of thebench interface 360 for selecting a resource map view. Here, in at leastsome embodiments a default resource map view may include an abbreviatedset of information that is selected to be most useful to an employee.For instance, when an employee at a bench accesses a map view, in mostcases, a small set of resource information will include the informationthe employee is seeking. For instance, locations of team members, a nextmeeting location and locations of the instance of each availableaffordance configuration (e.g., the closest available focus station, theclosest available kiosk configuration, the closest available enhancedprivacy configuration, etc.) closest to the employee's location otherthan a bench will likely include the information the employee isseeking. See, for instance, FIG. 33 where an exemplary maprepresentation 519 of space 12 a is presented where an employee is atbench 330 a on the map and the closest available focus station ishighlighted at 515, the closest available amplification kiosk ishighlighted at 517, the closest available enhanced privacy station ishighlighted at 521, and the closest available team studio is highlightedat 523. Team member locations are indicated at 527 and a next meetingspace is highlighted at 229. While each of the representation 519highlights are indicated in the same cross hatching style, in othercases each may have a different color or otherwise be uniquely visuallydistinguished.

The idea behind presenting the most likely interesting information to anemployee is to make it extremely simple for the employee to access thatinformation. In many cases, team member location, next meeting locationand the location of a closest resource of a specific type are the mostsought types of information managed by the system server 20. In somecases selecting button 405 simply calls up representation 519 on screen382 for the specific employee (e.g., indicating team members and nextmeeting location for that employee) and the specific bench location(e.g., indicating closest available resources of each configuration onlyas opposed to all available resources of each configuration type). Ifthe employee wants to use an amplification kiosk it is likely theemployee will want to use the available kiosk that is closest to thebench owned by the employee and therefore it makes sense to indicateonly that available kiosk on representation 519. Similarly, if theemployee wants to use a focus station or enhanced privacy configurationit is likely the employee will want to use the available configurationthat is closest to the bench owned by that employee.

While all of the different closest instances of configurations may bepresented on representation 519 in some cases, in other cases,consecutive selections of button 405 in FIG. 21 may cycle throughlocations of different resource types. For instance, a first selectionof button 405 or a “double click” selection of button 405 may cause onlyteam member locations to be presented on representation 519, a secondselection of button 405 may cause only the location of a closestavailable amplification kiosk to be highlighted, a third selection ofbutton 405 may cause only the location of a closest available focusstation to be highlighted on representation 519 and so on. Here, whenthe locations of different types of resources are indicated onrepresentation 519, a text title or legend may be presented to clearlyindicate which resource is being shown. For instance, when the locationof a closest available focus station is highlighted on representation519, a legend at 551 may indicate “Closest Available Focus Station”,when the location of a closest available kiosk is highlighted onrepresentation 519, legend 551 may indicate “Closest AvailableAmplification Kiosk”, and so on.

In some cases it is contemplated that an employee may be able to selectone of the highlighted resources on representation 519 in some fashionto start a visual guidance process similar to the process describedabove for locating an owned bench. For instance, in a case whereselection of button 405 cycles through highlighting different types ofclosest available resources one at a time, with one resource typehighlighted, a prolonged next selection of button 405 may causeselection of the highlighted resource and start a guidance process.Here, as above, the guidance process may include presenting a color orother indicator assigned to the employee via screen 382 and thencontrolling a string of indicators 30 along a path to the selectedresource. Where an employee indicates that she intends to own a selectedaffordance configuration, a configuration indicator may be controlled toindicate ownership as the employee travels to the configuration. Whilenot shown in FIG. 21, additional interface buttons for selecting otherresources to locate may be presented at 360. For instance, there could aseparately selectable buttons for locating team members, employeesgenerally, benches or other resources owned by employees, focusstations, kiosks, team studios, etc.

In most cases, because a closest available resource suggested to anemployee will be close to the bench temporarily owned by the employee,there may be no reason to provide guidance to the resource. This isespecially true in cases where affordance configurations arethoughtfully laid out so that one or more instances of each affordancetype are located proximate each bench configuration.

Referring yet again to FIG. 33, in some embodiments edge light devices495, 493 may be controlled to indicate various states of ownership ofassociated benches. For instance, when no employee owns a bench, anassociated light device 495 may be colored blue to indicate availabilityfor use by any employee. Here, ownership of the bench may be taken by anemployee via a reception screen as described above or by the employeesimply walking up to the bench and taking ownership (e.g., through useof the bench, via presentation of an RF ID to a bench reader device,etc.). Once an employee takes ownership of a bench, while the owner islocated at the bench, the indicator light device 495 may generate greenlight indicating ownership. When an employee that owns a bench stepsaway from the bench the light device 495 may generate yellow lightindicating an absent owner but that the owner intends to return to thebench.

C. Focus Station

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 34 through 41, an exemplary focus station56 includes a single person space defining structure for supportingindividual work activities by a single employee. The generalconstruction of station 56 is described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/642,902 which was filed on Sep. 23, 2015 and which is titled“Personal Workspace Assembly” which is incorporated herein in itsentirety by reference. In general, station 56 includes a wall structure500 that defines a personal space 512 and that supports a lounge chair508 (hereinafter “lounge 508”) and an adjacent shelf assembly 510. Asshown, wall structure 500 generally includes a full rear wall behindlounge 508, a full first side wall along a first side of the lounge andshelf assembly, a partial front wall extending from an end of the fullfirst side wall substantially parallel to the rear wall and a partialsecond side wall along a second side of the lounge 508 so that there isa single opening into space 512 between distal ends of the partial frontand partial second side walls.

Referring still to FIGS. 34 through 39, wall structure 500 generallyincludes a lower wall subassembly 502, an upper screen subassembly 504and leg or foot members 506. The lower wall subassembly 502 includes afascia members mounted to a skeletal frame (not illustrated in thisdisclosure) where a top edge 523 of the lower wall subassembly is atabout a typical seated work surface height (e.g., within a range between24 and 29 inches). Leg member 506 support lower wall subassembly 502 afew inches (e.g., 2 to 5 inches) above a supporting ambient floorsurface.

Screen subassembly 504 is mounted to the top end of the lower wallsubassembly 502 and, in at least some embodiments, includes screenmembers 517 supported by posts 513 that extend upward from top end 523.In at least some embodiments the screens 517 are suspended above wallsubassembly 502 so that a gap (e.g., 1 to two inches) exists between thelower edges 521 of screens 517 and the top end or surface 523 of wallsubassembly 502.

Lounge 508 includes a seat member 520 and a back rest structure 522 thatare suspended between the first and second lateral or side walls of wallstructure 500 where the front surface of backrest structure 522generally faces away from the rear wall portion of wall structure 500.Shelf 510 is located between a side portion of lounge 508 and aninternal side of the first side wall of structure 500. The top surfaceof shelf 510 is generally at a seated work surface height just to theright of a station user seated in lounge 508.

Referring still to FIG. 34, a table member 577 is mounted by a pivotingarm structure to wall structure 500 within space 512 below shelf member510 for movement between the use position shown in FIG. 34 in front oflounge 508 and a stored position forward of shelf member 510 andproximate the side wall from which shelf member 510 extends.

In at least some embodiments, system server 20 can determine when anemployee takes ownership of station 56. For instance, in at least somecases the location tracking system described above with respect to FIG.1 may be used to track employee locations in space 12 a and specificallyto determine when an employee moves into space 512. When an employeemoves into space 512, assuming no other employee owns the station,server 20 may be programmed to automatically assign ownership of station56 to the local employee.

In other cases, some type of sensing device may be dedicated to station56 and may sense more directly when a user takes station ownership. Forinstance, a presence sensor device may be mounted in space 512 to sensewhen an employee is located in space 512 and to assign ownership whenappropriate. In this case, the presence sensor may be able to detectemployee identity by interrogating an employee badge (see again 90 inFIG. 4), smart phone or other portable device. In the alternative, wherea location tracking system is already generally tracking employeelocations and identities, the identity of an employee detected via apresence sensor in space 512 may be obtained from the location trackingsystem. As another example of a sensor dedicated to station 56, a weightor pressure sensor 551 may be mounted to or integrated into seat 520 todetect when an employee sits in lounge 508. Here, again, identity of theemployee in lounge 508 may be determined via a general space locationtracking system.

In still other embodiments, it is contemplates that an RFID sensor orthe like akin to sensor 412 in FIG. 21 above may be provided at station56 for reading an employee badge 90 or other portable RF identifyingdevice. To this end, see again FIG. 34 and also FIG. 40 where an RFIDreader 569 is built into shelf member 570. Here, the structure of shelfmember 570 may be similar to the structure of member 340 shown in FIGS.20 and 21. Other buttons shown in FIG. 40 are described hereafter.

Referring again to FIG. 34, in at least some embodiments, station 56includes one or more types of signaling components. For instance, aprojector 548 is shown mounted to the top end of one of the posts 513for projecting information onto an inside surface of one of the screenmembers 517 as shown by the dotted rectangular field 550. Here, whilecontent may be projected in some cases for an employee located in space512, in other cases, the content in field 550 may be intended forviewing outside space 512. For this reason, in at least someembodiments, the screen member 517 projected onto will be lighttranslucent so that images projected on the inside surface thereof canbe viewed as content on the outside surface. To this end, see theinformation at 550 in FIG. 35 that indicates the employee that currentlyowns station 56. In some cases, to be light translucent, screen members517 may be formed of a thin white/opaque plastic material.

Other exemplary projectors 540 and 544 are shown mounted to stationposts 513 to project information onto other screen fields 542 and 546.Any type of signally or content presentation described above may bepresented in any of the fields projected onto the screen members 517.Referring still to FIG. 34, a fourth projector 552 is shown that directsprojected content 554 upward onto an ambient ceiling surface 501. Inaddition, a fifth projector 549 is shown mounted to the ceilingstructure 501 to project content into field 550.

Instead of projecting content into screen fields, in some embodiments, aflat panel display screen 560 may be mounted to an external surface ofone or more of the screen members 517 for presenting signaling or othercontent. A way finder visual indicator 537 may be presented in a colortemporarily assigned to an employee to help the employee locate astation in cases where the focus stations can be temporarily owned byspecific employees. In still other cases, all or at least a portion ofone of the screen members 517 may be formed out of a curved emissivesurface assembly so that content and signally may be presented on theoutside surface of the screen or screens or, in some cases, on theinside surface or surfaces of the screen or screens. Again, exemplarycurved emissive surface structures are described in detail in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/500,091 which was filed on Sep. 29, 2014and titled “Curved Display And Curved Display Support” describes curveddisplay systems and which is incorporated herein in its entirety byreference.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 34 through 39, additional signally devicesmay be mounted to or adjacent an undersurface of lower wall subassembly502, here, for instance, LED light strips 580 may be mounted to theundersurface. In some cases the signaling devices 580 may be directlyviewable below wall subassembly 502 while in other cases light generatedby signaling devices 580 may only be indirectly observable afterreflecting off an ambient floor surface. Here, it is contemplated thatdevices 580 may be controlled to generate different lighting effects tosignal different circumstances. For instance, prior to an employeeestablishing ownership of station 56, devices 580 may generate a glowingblue light to indicate that station 56 is not currently owned and isavailable for use by any employee. Once ownership is established andprior to an employee indicating that she does not want to be disturbed,devices 580 may generate glowing green light to indicate occupancy. Ifan employee in station 56 indicates that she does not want to bedisturbed, devices 580 may generate red light as a do not disturbsignal. If an employee that temporarily owns station 56 gets up andleaves the station for a short time, devices 580 may generate yellowlight to indicate that station 56 is owned but that the owner is notcurrently located in the station. Other conditions that may be signaledare contemplated.

In other embodiments, lighting devices (e.g., strips of LEDs) 529 may bemounted to the lower edge 521 of each of at least a subset of screens517 (see FIG. 35) to direct signally light upward and into the screenmembers where the screen members are at least somewhat lighttransmissive or onto an outer surface of the screen members 517 if themembers are not light transmissive. In still other cases devices 529 maydirect different color signaling light at the top surface 523 of thelower wall structure 502.

In at least some embodiments station 56 will include one or severalactuators that can be controlled to adjust station parameters to meetemployee preferences. Thus, for instance, see that the FIG. 34 stationconfiguration 56 includes a light device 549. In at least someembodiments employees will, at some point, indicate light intensitypreference which can be stored for subsequent automatic light intensityadjustment. As another instance, lounge 508 may include one or moreheating elements, vibrating elements or massage elements or combinationsthereof in backrest 522 at 524 or in seat 520 at 526. Here, a firstemployee may prefer a relatively warm lounge while a second employeeprefers a cooler lounge. In this case, a heating element at 524 and/or526 may be controlled to provide different heating levels. In stillother cases, screen members 517 may be formed out of opacitycontrollable glass and different employees may have differentpreferences for how opaque one or more of the screen members 517 shouldbe. Other station actuators are contemplated. In FIG. 34, speakers 530are provided in the upper portion of backrest 522 proximate the areaoccupied by an employee's head when seated in the lounge 508. In atleast some cases speakers 530 may be controlled by server 20 to provideaudio output such as, for instance, a calming nature inspired soundtrack (e.g., a babbling brook, a rain storm, rustling wind, etc.), aninstrumental sound track, etc. In at least some cases it is contemplatedthat employees may select preferred tracks which can then beautomatically fed to speakers 530 when a specific associated employeeassumes ownership of station 56.

Referring again to FIG. 40, a control panel or input assembly akin tothe assembly described above with respect to FIGS. 20 and 21 is shown.Each of the selectable buttons or icons in FIG. 40 may be constructedand operate in a similar fashion to the buttons and sensors described inFIGS. 20 and 21. In FIG. 40, the control panel includes a “lighting up”button 592, a “lighting down” button 594, an “opacity up” button 596, an“opacity down” button 598, a “silence” button 600, a “do not disturb”button 602, a “volume up” button 604, a “volume down” button 606, a“change track” button 608, a “heat up” button 610 and a “heat down”button 612. Buttons 592 and 594 can be used to manually controlintensity of light generated by device 549. Buttons 596 and 598 can beused to manually control opacity of the screen members 517. Buttons 604and 606 can be used to control the volume of a sound track generated byspeakers 530. Button 608 can be used to cycle through different soundtracks. Buttons 610 and 612 can be used to change the heat setting of aheating element in the lounge at 524 and/or 526. Silence button 600 canbe selected to cause server 20 to present a silence indicator on one ormore of the outside surfaces of the screens 517 as shown in FIGS. 35through 38 in at 567. Similarly, the do not disturb button 602 can beselected to cause server 20 to present a do not disturb indicator 579 onany of screens 517 as shown in FIGS. 35 through 39.

In at least some embodiments, it is contemplated that any of thestations 56 may be reserved via one of the reception screens 84 in afashion similar to that described above with respect to the personalbench configurations 60. Thus, for instance, a specific employee mayroutinely prefer to use a focus station for 3 hours every morning and,in that case, server 20 may, upon the employee arriving in a space 12 a,automatically identify a station 56 optimized for the employee'sspecific preferences (e.g., relative location with respect to teammembers, first meeting, all meeting during a day, team member benches orother configurations owned by team members, location with respect tonatural light, sound volume, foot traffic, etc.) and suggest thatstation for use. Once an employee accepts ownership of the station, theserver can guide the employee to the station and simultaneously preparethe station for arrival of the specific employee. Upon arrival at astation 56, a suitable salutation may be presented as at 546 in FIG. 35and the station actuators may be controlled automatically to adjust toaffordances to meet employee's preferences.

As in the case of the personal benches described above, server 20 maytrack employee schedules and locations and may present warnings ornotices to the employee about next meetings, other arriving employeesand their locations, etc. For instance, see FIG. 41 where a notice 620is presented in field 542 indicating that Jen Black's next meetingstarts in 10 minutes in Team Studio 2. In this case, Team Study 2 may besome distance away from Jen Blacks' current location and therefore thenotice also suggests that Jen take all her belongings and take ownershipof a different harbor closer to Team Study 2 for the remainder of theday. Again, a guidance or way finder color is assigned to Jen at 621which operates as the beginning of a string of way finder or guidanceindicators to Team Studio 2.

In addition, when an employee leaves an owned station 56 for a shorttime, server 20 may automatically identify that the employee has leftthe station and present an indicator to that effect on one or more ofthe screens 517. When an employee wants silence, the employee can selectbutton 600 to warn others in the area via indicator 567 that theemployee prefers silence. When the employee does not want to bedisturbed, the employee can select button 602 to indicate that theemployee does not want to be disturbed.

In other cases, it is contemplated that only personal benches (see againFIGS. 17 and 18) may be offered by reception stations 84 and that otheraffordances may have to be claimed for use (e.g., for temporaryownership) in some other fashion. For instance, stations 56 may have tobe claimed by employees as part of a walk up process whereby an employeehas to actually travel to an unused station 56 and perform some processin order to claim ownership. Thus, for instance, referring again to FIG.34, an employee may need to actually enter space 512 and be seated inlounge 508 so that sensor 551 senses the seated employee in order toassign ownership of station 56 to the employee. By requiring an employeeto be present to claim temporary ownership of a station 56, situationswhere an absent employee ties up a focus station for some time areavoided.

In some cases, there may be different levels of station 56 ownership.Thus, for instance, when an employee sits in lounge 56, the employee mayestablish a first level of ownership and, to establish a second morepersonal level of ownership, the employee may have to present her badge90 (see again FIG. 4) to RFID sensor 569 for identification. When thefirst level of ownership is established, server 20 may change somethingabout the appearance of station to indicate ownership. For instance, insome cases the term “Occupied” may be presented on one or more of thescreens 517 to indicate general ownership or occupancy of the station56. When the second level of ownership is established, server 20 mayprovide more employee specific information on screens 517 like theemployee's name to indicate specific ownership. In addition, when thesecond level of ownership is established, server 20 may automaticallycontrol station actuators to customize station settings or attributes tothe preferences of the employee that owns the station 56.

D. Enhanced Privacy Station

Referring now to FIGS. 42 through 54, an exemplary enhanced privacystation or configuration 54 is illustrated. Multiple instances ofconfiguration 54 may be provided in enterprise spaces to provide privatespaces for periodic temporary use by one employee that needs to focus onher work in an acoustically and visually private space or a small groupof employees that similarly need acoustic and visual isolation fromothers in the general area. While a space 710 defined by configuration54 is relatively small (e.g., typically less than 15 by 15 feet), byconstructing at least one of the walls with glass that can betransparent at least some times, the space 710 can be made to feel muchlarger and less restrictive. Nevertheless, by providing some way toblock views through the glass wall, visual privacy can be achieved whenneeded. Configuration 54 has been designed to automatically dial space710 into employee preferences while still enabling an employee to easilyand quickly change affordance attributes when desired. In addition,configuration 54 has been designed to consider an employee's scheduleand, based thereon, prepare configuration affordances to support theemployee in participating in scheduled activities.

Referring still to FIGS. 42 through 54, configuration 54 includes first,second, third and fourth wall subassemblies 702, 704, 706 and 708,respectively. In the illustrated embodiment the second, third and fourthwall subassemblies 704, 706 and 708, respectively, define asubstantially rectilinear meeting space 710 where wall subassemblies 704and 708 are spaced apart and substantially parallel to each other onopposite sides of space 710 and where wall subassembly 706 extendsbetween and substantially perpendicular to internal surfaces of wallsubassemblies 702 and 708. While each of the wall subassemblies 702, 704and 706 includes several different components and structures, in atleast some embodiments, the components that form the internal surfacesof those walls have flat outer surfaces and the flat surfaces of thecomponents that form each wall are substantially flush with each other.Thus, for instance, where a flat panel display is mounted within a wallsubassembly with other flat components thereabout, the front surface ofthe flat panel display may be substantially flush with the surroundingsurfaces of the other flat components.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,966,842 (hereinafter “the '842 patent”) which is titled“Floor To Ceiling Partition Wall Assembly” and which was filed on Sep.17, 2013 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 8,955,271 (hereinafter “the '271patent”) which is titled “Sliding Door Assembly” and which was alsofiled on Sep. 17, 2013, are incorporated herein in their entirety byreference. The '842 patent describes a floor to ceiling frame and panelwall assembly while the '271 patent describes a sliding door assemblyfor use with the floor to ceiling wall assembly of the '842 patent, bothof which may be used to construct first wall subassembly 701 as well asone or least a subset of the other wall subassemblies 704, 706 and 708.U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/913,254 (hereinafter “the '254application”) which is titled “Panel Light Assembly” and which was filedon Jun. 7, 2013 is also incorporated herein in its entirety by referenceand describes a light panel assembly that may be used in at least someembodiments to provide light within a wall panel in the configuration 54or in some of the other configurations (e.g., the team studio 62)described hereafter.

Referring still to FIGS. 42 through 45, first wall subassembly 702 isspaced apart from third wall subassembly 706 and is substantiallyparallel thereto. First wall subassembly 702 includes, generally, firstand second side glass panel subassemblies 712 and 716 (also calledpanels hereafter) and a glass door subassembly 714 mounted to upper andlower tracks 718 and 720 substantially parallel to glass panels 712 and716 for sliding motion between an open position (see partially openposition in FIG. 42) and a closed position (see closed position in FIG.48). When panel 714 is in the open position, an employee can enter orexit space 710 and when panel 714 is closed, wall subassembly 702completely closes off space 710 from the surrounding space (e.g., 12 a).

In at least some embodiments, in addition to including a glass memberand, in at least some cases, a frame structure of some type, each ofglass panel subassemblies 712, 714 and 716 may also include additionalcontrollable components that can be used to change attributes of theglass members in useful ways. For example, in at least some embodiments,one or more multicolor LED strips may be mounted along one or more edgesof each of the panels 712, 714 and 716 which are controllable togenerate several different colors of light. In at least some cases theLED strips may be arranged adjacent each glass panel so as to directlight into the panel edge causing the panel to light up and glow with acolor of the generated light. Here, the LED strips may be controlled aspart of the visual guidance system described above to present coloredillumination as either a destination configuration or one in a string ofindicators indicating a path to another configuration to a travellingemployee. In the alternative or in addition to providing guidancesignals, the colored illumination presented via panels 712, 714 and 716may be used to signal different statuses of meetings or activitiesoccurring in space 710. For instance, prior to any employee takingownership of space 710, the panel light may be white and once anemployee takes ownership of space 710, panels 712, 714 and 716 may beilluminated green. As another instance, when an employee that owns space710 does not want to be disturbed, red light may be generated in panels712, 714 and 716.

As another example, each of panel assemblies 712, 714 and 716 mayinclude a privacy glass assembly where opacity of each panel can becontrolled to be substantially clear or substantially opaque. Here,glass opacity may be controllable automatically based on some presetalgorithm or may be controlled by an owning employee in real time tosuit the employee's instantaneous preferences. For instance, while doorpanel 714 is open (e.g., not completely closed), panels 712, 714 and 716may be controlled to be clear. Once door panel 714 is closed, each ofpanels 712, 714 and 716 may be controlled to be completely opaque andtherefore to block a view from outside space 710 into space 710.

In at least some embodiments, instead of controlling the panels to becompletely opaque, each panel may be controlled to obscure a viewthrough the panel only somewhat so that general information about whatis on the other side of the panel is still discernible by an employee.Thus, for instance, where a panel is only partially opaque so that somelight travels there through, an employee on one side of the panel may beable to make out the general outline of another employee on the otherside without being able to determine the other employee's identity,without seeing the other employees facial expressions, etc. Where glassis only partially opaque, the obscured view of another employee on theother side can operate as a warning. For instance, for an employeeoutside space 710, the obscured view can serve as a warning that space710 is being used. For an employee in space 710, the obscured view canallow the employee to perceive when another employee is located outsidespace 710 adjacent wall 702 for some reason.

In at least some cases, while panel opacity may be automaticallycontrolled at times, at any time, an employee that owns space 710 maycontrol opacity to meet the employee's immediate preference. Thus, forinstance, if an employee in space 710 perceives another employee outsidespace 710 through a partially opaque panel 714, the employee in space710 may clear the panel to see who is outside the space 710. In FIG. 42,panels 714 and 716 are shown clear while panel 712 is shown opaque asindicated by the vertical cross hatching.

Yet one other example of controllable technology that may be providedwithin one or each of wall panel subassemblies 712, 714 and 716 iscontrollable signage. For instance, several different types oftransparent glass signage technology have been developed that can beused to, in effect, generate still or video graphics on a seemingly orsubstantially transparent glass panel. To this end, GWS Technology ofHong King is one company that has developed a transparent glass LEDsystem which may be useful in one or more of wall subassemblies 712, 714and 716. In FIG. 42, see that different messages can be presented onpanels 712, 714 and 716 using the transparent glass LED technologyincluding a welcome salutation 722, name plate type information 724, asilence indicator 728 and/or a do not disturb indicator 726. Here, in atleast some cases graphics may automatically be presented on panels 712,714 and 716. For instance, as in the cases of other configurationsdescribed above, when Jen Black arrives at room 54 for a meeting,salutation 722 may be automatically presented. Similarly, name plateinformation 724 may be automatically presented if Jen Black owns space710. The do not disturb indication 726 may be automatically presentedwhen a meeting commences in space 710 with panel 714 in the closedposition. The silence indication 728 may always be presented when ameeting is occurring in space 710 or may be automatically presented onlywhen certain types of meetings like telepresence meetings are occurringin space 710. In still other cases, indicators 726 and 728 may only bepresented when an owning employee performs some process to indicate apreference to not be disturbed or for silence.

While some systems may only include one of the lighting, opacity controland signage capabilities, in other cases, panels 712, 714 and 716 may beequipped to provide any combination of those capabilities. For instance,light directed into panels 712, 714 and 716 may be used as part of thevisual guidance system but, once a meeting starts in space 710, theopacity control components may be controlled to render the panels opaqueor at least somewhat opaque.

Referring still to FIG. 52, a separate visual guidance indicator 30 x isshown mounted to upper track member 718. Here, instead of providingguidance light in panels 712, 714, etc., indicator device 30 x may becontrolled for guidance purposes.

Referring again to FIG. 44, a flattened top plan view of exemplary room54 is illustrated where wall subassemblies 702, 704, 706 and 708 areshown aid flat about space 710. FIG. 45 includes yet another view ofroom 54 include plan views of wall subassemblies 702, 704, 706 and 708and other affordances included in space 710 including, among others, acouch assembly 738 and a control table assembly 800 (both assemblies 738and 800 are shown twice in FIG. 45 to indicate relative juxtapositionsto components on wall subassemblies 704 and 706 there behind.

Referring to FIGS. 44 and 45, second wall subassembly 704 includes alarge flat panel display screen 742 and a large flat lighting device orpanel 740. Screen 742 is a rectilinear screen which has top and bottomedges and first and second lateral edges that define a screen height anda screen width, respectively. The screen width between the lateraledges, in at least the illustrated embodiment, extends substantially theentire width dimension of wall subassembly 704 while the heightdimension is substantially one third the height dimension of the wallsubassembly 704. Light panel 740 has dimensions similar to thedimensions of display screen 742. Light panel 740 covers substantiallythe top one third of wall subassembly 704 while display screen 742covers substantially the middle one third of subassembly 704. Where wallsubassembly 704 is nine feet tall, the height dimensions of each ofpanel 740 and screen 742 are each approximately 3 feet. Other heightdimensions are contemplated within a range between two feet and fivefeet for each of panel 740 and display screen 742. As best viewed inFIG. 45, the couch 738 has a backrest that has a height dimension thatcomes up to the lower edge of screen 742. The backrest height is suchthat the eyes of a person of average height sitting upright on couch 738will be at a height that is substantially aligned with the centralportion of screen 742. Thus, when sitting normally on couch 738, anemployee's gaze in space 710 will be at the general height of screen738.

Light device 740, like many of the other light generating devices inthis disclosure will, in particularly useful embodiments, becontrollable to generate many different light colors for settingambiance, signaling purposes, etc. For instance, again, the Phillips'Hue technology may be used in panel 740 so that any of many differentcolors of light can be generated. In some cases panel 740 may include aglass panel and an LED light strip may be provided on the edge of theglass to direct different color light into the panel. In some cases theglass panel may be frosted or etched on one or both sides or may includeparticulate material to increase the amount of light deflected intospace 710.

Display 742 may include an electronic flat panel display or, in thealternative, may include a projector surface on which content may beprojected. Where display 742 includes a projection surface, a projector(not illustrated) would be provided in space 710 or may be provided onthe opposite side of wall 710 in the case of a back projectorconfiguration and directed at display 742.

Referring still to FIGS. 44 and 45, in at least some embodiments, eachof the first and second wall subassemblies 704 and 706 will be similarlyconstructed and will operate in a similar fashion. Thus, subassembly 706may include a large light panel mounted above a large flat panel displayor emissive screen so that the panel and screen together substantiallycover the entire interior surface of wall subassembly 706 above thebackrest portion of couch 738.

In other embodiments it is contemplated that a single emissive surfacemay be provided instead of separate light panel and display screendevices on each of wall subassemblies 704 and 706. To this end, see theexemplary single screen labeled 745 in FIGS. 44 and 45 where the top andbottom half sections are separated by a dotted line and are separatelylabeled 744 and 746, respectively. In at least some cases a systemserver may control the upper and lower sections 744 and 746 of screen745 independently to provide lighting and display screen functionalitiesas described hereinafter. Clearly in cases where a single emissivesurface or screen 745 is provided as part of one of the wallsubassemblies 704 or 706 the light and display sections can be divideddifferently or, where one of those functions is not needed at some time,the entire screen 745 may be controlled to provide the other function atleast temporarily. While a single screen 745 is shown as part of wallsubassembly 706, hereinafter, the different sections 744 and 746 will bereferred to as a light panel and a display screen, respectively unlessindicated otherwise.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 44 and 45 and also to FIGS. 42 and 43,fourth wall subassembly 708 includes a first light device or panel 734,a second light device or panel 736 and first and second separate flatpanel display screens 730 and 732, respectively. The first and secondlight panels 734 and 736 have width dimensions that extendssubstantially the entire width of wall subassembly 706 and heightdimensions that are each, about one third the height of subassembly 708,in the illustrated embodiment. Screens 730 and 732 have similardimensions and each has a width dimension that is less than half thewidth dimension of wall subassembly 708. Screens 730 and 732 form acentral portion of wall subassembly 708 with first and second lightpanels 734 and 736 arranged above and below the screens 730 and 732.Thus, screens 730 and 732 are at substantially the same height asdisplay screens 742 and 746 on wall subassemblies 706 and 704,respectively. Light panels 734 and 736 are constructed in a fashionsimilar to the light panels 740 described above.

Referring still to FIGS. 44 and 45, in at least some embodiments, asingle emissive surface may provide both screens 730 and 732 where theleft and right halves of the screen are simply driven with differentcontent to facilitate dual simultaneous display functions. Similarly, asingle emissive surface or screen may form substantially the entireinternal surface of wall subassembly 708 and different sections orfields of the single surface may be controlled differently to facilitatedifferent functions (e.g., lighting, telepresence, contentamplification, etc.) as described herein. In addition, while thedimensions of the screens and light devices that form wall subassembly708 described above are of particularly interesting given preferences ofmost space users (e.g., ability to take in a relatively close rangeimage is limited to a certain size), in some embodiments otherdimensions are contemplated. For instance, screens 730 and 732 may haveheight dimensions that are greater than one third the height dimensionof wall subassembly 708. For example, where wall 708 has a heightdimension of nine feet, the height of screen 730 may be anywhere betweentwo feet and six feet.

Referring still to FIGS. 44 and 45, two high definition telepresencecameras 733 and 735 are mounted centrally along top edges of screens 730and 732, respectively. The cameras are generally centrally aligned withscreens 730 and 732 so that, when an employee in space 710 looks at oneof the screens, the image obtained by the associated camera shows theemployee looking generally straight on in the direction of the camera.Thus, in the case of a telepresence system where an image of a remoteemployee is presented on screen 732, when an employee in space 710 looksat the image on screen 732, camera 735 picks up an image of the employeethat can be provided to the remote employee where the local employee isstaring right at the remote conferee and an eye-to-eye effect results.In other embodiments only one of the cameras may be provided in room 54.Where only a single camera is provided that single camera may beprovided centrally above both screen 733 and 735 in some cases.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 44 and 45, speakers 750 are mounted withinone or more of the wall subassemblies that define space 710, in aceiling structure above space 710 or in one or more of the affordances(e.g., couch 738, table 800, etc.) located in space 710. The speakers750 may be controlled to provide various outputs. For instance, at timesthe speakers 750 may be controlled to broadcast an employee's favoritenatural (e.g., a babbling brook, rain falling, etc.) sound track. Atother times, speakers 750 may broadcast voices of remote employeesattending a meeting in space 710 via a teleconference system.

Referring again to FIGS. 42 through 45 and now also to FIG. 46, anexemplary control table 800 includes a base structure or housing inwhich other table assembly components reside. The table assembly 800also includes a circular flat top surface 802 that operates, in at leastsome embodiments, as an output device and an input device, enabling anemployee to control various affordances in space 710. To this end, in atleast some embodiments, top surface 802 may be formed using a circulartouch sensitive display screen member that can present selectablevirtual graphical icons to an employee. Here, where an icon is selected,the sensed selection activity results in an associated control signal toa system server which in turn results in control of a space affordancerelated to the control signal.

In some cases, when an employee first enters space 710 and takes up aposition on couch 738, sensors (e.g., access points, cameras, etc.) inspace 710 determine the instantaneous location of the employee on couch738. Once employee location is known, the server may be programmed, aspart of a welcoming routine, to present a universal interface (UI) handicon 804 on screen 802 at a location close to the location of theemployee that recently entered space 710. Here, icon 804 is presented asan invitation and a tool for the employee to access other room controltools. In some cases, the employee may respond to presentation of the UIicon by touching top screen 802. When screen 802 is touched, server 20may be programmed to provide a set of other virtual room control toolsas an extension of the UI as shown at 806, 808, 810 and 812 in FIG. 46.The icons in FIG. 46 may in turn each be selected to access moredetailed control tools for affordances in space 710 or for controllingcontent to be shared during a meeting or accessed during use ofconfiguration 54. For instance, selection of icon 806 may indicate ascheduled telepresence session or may allow an employee to controlcameras in space 710, selection of icon 808 may enable the employee tochange imagery or video on various emissive or projection surfaces inspace 710 to meet current preferences, selection of icon 810 may causeaudio controls for audio components associated with space 710 to beprovided via screen 802, selection of icon 812 may enable an employee toaccess a space scheduling or employee tracking system, etc.

In addition to enabling control of room affordances, in at least somecases the UI will provide tools that allow sharing of content and thatfacilitate management of a meeting in space 710. For instance, while notshown, the UI may enable an employee like Jen Black to access anapplication or database and retrieve digital images, a digital document,a video, etc., to be shared via one or both of the display screen 730and 735.

While screen 802 is described as being touch sensitive, in other casesthe screen or table assembly 800 generally may be equipped with othersensor types such as gesture sensors or voice recognition sensors (e.g.,microphones that feed a speech recognition system for detecting specificcontrol commands uttered by and employee in space 710). For instance, toaccess additional virtual control tools as shown in FIG. 46, an employeemay only need to wave her hand above icon 804.

While configuration 54 described above has many different features andaspects and may be controlled in many different ways, a particular setof operating processes or procedures are considered particularlyadvantageous. To this end, an exemplary use of room 54 is describedhereafter. In this regard, it will be assumed that Jen Black has atelepresence meeting set with Paul Pink for 2 PM central time and thatPaul is located in San Francisco.

In the description of FIGS. 47 through 54, different snapshots in timeof the meeting between Jen Black and Paul Pink are shown in consecutiveorder. Where room attributes do not change from one image to the next,the attributes are shown the same in consecutive images and will not bedescribed again in relation to the following of two consecutive images.Thus, for instance, see that panel 734 is shown to be illuminated blueas indicated by the dual diagonal cross hatching in FIG. 47 and theconsecutive FIG. 48. In that case, while the blue color is described inthe context of FIG. 47, the blue illumination will not be described inthe context of FIG. 48.

Jen, initially located at a different location in space 12 a, isnotified of the meeting ten minutes before it is scheduled to start anduses the visual indicator guidance system described above and thatincludes indicator 30 x in FIG. 42 to travel to configuration 54. WhenJen arrives at configuration 54, all of the panels that form wallsubassembly 702 are initially clear and a system server, recognizingthat Jen is proximate room 54, presents salutation 722 on panel 714. Inaddition, server 20 presents name plate information at 724 on panel 716.In other cases no salutation or name plate information may be providedon the outer panels and instead that type of information may bepresented within the space 710.

In at least some embodiments, a color convention will be adopted by anenterprise where a small subset of different colors (e.g., five clearlydistinguishable different colors) will be ascribed to different spacestatuses within all enterprise spaces. For the purposes of the presentdisclosure, it will be assumed that for an exemplary enterprise, thecolor yellow is used to indicate an imminent use status (e.g., that aspace is scheduled to be used in the near future and therefore shouldnot be used by an unscheduled employee), the color green is used toindicate that a meeting will commence in the next five minutes within anassociated space, the color red will indicate that a meeting isprogressing within a space, the color blue will be used to indicate thata meeting in a space will end in the next five minutes and the colorwhite will be used to indicate that a meeting in a space has ended andemployees from that meeting are packing up and leaving an associatedspace. Other color assignments and lighting effects to indicatedifferent statuses are contemplated. For instance, when a meeting is tocommence in the next minute, the green light may pulse on and off.

Consistent with the above status indicating convention, prior to thefive minute period that precedes the meeting between Jen and Paul Pink,signaling may be presented outside space 710 to indicate that the space710, while not occupied, is scheduled for use and therefore should notbe used by another employee. In the present example light devices in thepanels 712, 714 and 716 generate yellow light so that the panels glowyellow for other employees to see. In the alternative or in addition tothe panels 712,714 and 716 generating yellow light, light devices inspace 710 may be controlled to generate yellow light that can be seenthrough the clear panels outside space 710 to indicate the imminent usestatus of space 710. In still other cases some other dedicated spacestatus indicator (e.g., a Hue light device mounted to upper rail 718(not illustrated) may indicate status by generating yellow light.

Referring now to FIG. 47, as Jen enters space 710 through the opensliding door 714, system server 20 recognizes that Jen is in space 710and controls various actuators associated with room 54 affordances tocustomize room attributes to Jen's preferences that are stored indatabase 76 (see again FIG. 3) and to automatically present at leastsome scheduling and current status information to Jen. First, Jen'spreferences may specify lighting characteristics within the space 710.For example, Jen may prefer light blue illumination prior to any meetingshe attends to help her transition from a prior activity to a nextactivity. Consistent with this preference, server 20 may control lightpanels 740, 744, 734 and 736 to generate light blue illumination inspace 710 as indicated by the double diagonal hatching in FIG. 47.Second, Jen may have specified a favorite nature video track to be usedas a dynamic ambient background whenever possible that can be played onscreens 742 and 746 as indicated by the scenes in FIG. 47. Third, Jenmay have specified a favorite sound track to be used as a backgroundsound whenever possible that can be played via speakers 750 as indicatedin FIG. 47. Here, in many cases, the ambient sound track may be tied tothe ambient video track to create a more immersive experience.

Referring still to FIG. 47, fourth, left screen 730 may be used topresent several different types of information. For instance, anothersalutation may be provided to Jen as indicated at 725. As anotherinstance, a warning that the next meeting is to begin in 5 minutes withPaul Pink may be presented as at 723. Where location of the remoteemployee (e.g., Paul Pink) is being tracked, that information may beused to indicate Paul's current location status as at 721 (e.g., “Paulis on his way to Telepresence Station 12 in San Francisco”). Informationrelated to a remote employee's environment may also be presented. Forinstance, the remote employee's location, time in that location andinformation about weather in that location may be presented as at 719.By presenting information about the remote employee's environment, it isbelieved that a greater empathetic connection can be made between local(e.g., Jen in the present example) and remote employees. For instance,if Jen knows that it is 2 AM at a remote employee's location or thatthere is a snow storm ranging at a remote employee's location, Jen willhave a better sense of how the remote employee may be feeling during asession and the sense of a shared experience is enhanced. Once withinthe 5 minute period prior to the scheduled start time of the meeting,the status lighting outside space 710 is controlled to generate greenlight indicating that the meeting is about to commence.

Referring to FIG. 48, shortly after arriving at space 710 and prior tothe scheduled start time of the meeting with Paul, Jen slides glasspanel door 714 closed. Here, while not shown, there may be a presencesensor within one of the door tracks 718 or 720 or some area camera(e.g., one of the cameras in space 710) may sense when the door isclosed. In at least some embodiments, when door 714 is closed, systemserver 20 may control panels 712, 714 and 716 to render them opaque sothat Jen has visual privacy in space 710. In an alternative system,server 20 may not render the panels 712, 714 and 716 opaque untilimmediately prior to or upon commencement of the scheduled meeting. Ineither case, opacity is optimally controlled automatically so that Jencan have the benefits associated therewith without having to perform anyotherwise unnecessary affirmative tasks. Referring still to FIG. 48, oneother change that is illustrated in FIG. 48 is that the server updatesPaul Pink's status on screen 730 to indicate that Paul is now at thetelepresence station he will be using during the meeting that is tostart shortly. Thus, even prior to establishing a telepresence link withthe telepresence system at Paul's location, Jen may be provided withinformation related to Paul's status.

In at least some cases establishment of a telepresence communicationlink between a station or telepresence system to be used by Paul duringthe meeting and station 54 may be automatically completed prior toeither of Jen or Paul even arriving at their respective telepresencesystems. In other cases the link may be established after at least oneof Jen or Paul arrives at their telepresence system or only after botharrive at their systems but without requiring any specific activity toinitiate the link. Despite the telepresence link being established, inparticularly advantageous systems, audio and video communication betweenthe two systems linked by the communication will not commence until bothJen and Paul perform some simple process to opt into the session. Forinstance, see the telepresence icon 806 in FIG. 46 that may beselectable to opt into a session.

In at least some cases, communication link status, employee status andsession opt in status may be indicated via station 54 affordances. Forinstance, text messages may be presented via screen 730 as indicated at750 in FIG. 48 (e.g., “Paul has now arrived . . . ”) and 752 in FIG. 49(e.g., “Paul's video connection is queued up for the meeting and Paulhas opted into the telepresence session”). In the alternative, a moreglanceable indication of link, employee and session opt in status may bepresented. To this end, for instance, regardless of the locations of Jenand Paul in the present example, once a telepresence communication linkis established between the telepresence system in space 54 and thesystem to be used by Paul, a distorted image of the scene captured bythe telepresence cameras at each end of the link may be presented at theother end of the link. Thus, for example, see the blurred image 756shown in FIG. 49. In this case, if Jen sees a blurred image on screen732, Jen would recognize that the telepresence link has been establishedbut that audio and full video communication is not occurring. Here, ifPaul is not yet at the remote end of the link, Paul would not appear inthe blurred image and Jen could pick up on Paul's absence immediately.Once Paul arrives and appears in the blurred image, Jen would have aclear understanding that Paul is at the remote end of the link.

Prior to Paul opting into the telepresence session, the blurred image756 may be presented without any highlighting border or frame. Once Paulopts into the session, in some cases, a green border or some other typeof indicator may be presented about the blurred image to indicate onJen's end that Paul has opted into the session and is waiting for Jen toopt in. Similar opt in signaling may be provided at Paul's end of thelink so that Paul is aware of whether or not Jen has opted into thesession. Once both Paul and Jen opt into the session, full audio andvideo communication may commence between Paul and Jen as indicated inFIG. 51. Thus, a clear video image of Paul is presented on screen 732and meeting audio can be broadcast via speakers 750.

In other cases, other sequences of link, employee and session statusindications are contemplated. For instance, no remote image may bepresented in at least some cases until at least one employee isavailable at a station 54 or other telepresence system and that employeehas opted into the session. Here, once the employee opts in, again, ablurred image may be presented at the other end of the link until thesecond employee opts in. In still other cases, a remote image may not bepresented at a location station 54 until the local employee at leastarrives in the station 54.

Referring again to FIG. 49, in at least some embodiments it iscontemplated that, while the wall subassemblies 702, 704, 706 and 708 aswell as the ceiling structure over space 710 should be sound proof, inmany cases at least some sound may penetrate the wall and ceilingsubassemblies so that space 710 cannot provide complete audio privacy.In these cases, in at least some embodiments, it is contemplated thateither a location tracking system or some type of presence sensoroutside wall subassembly 702 may sense when another employee is locatedoutside and relatively close to (e.g., within 6 feet) wall structure 702and may present a warning to an employee in space 710. A lurkingemployee warning system is particularly important in cases where thewall panels 712, 714 and 716 are completely opaque as employees in space710 may have a false sense of privacy. To this end, see in FIG. 49 thata presence sensor 753 is mounted to the outside of wall subassembly 702for sensing that an employee 756 is located outside space 710. Asuitable warning notice is presented at 754. Where a location trackingsystem can determine the identity of an employee outside space 710, thewarning 754 may identify the employee outside space 710. To this end,see the exemplary warning 754 that indicates “Pete White is outside thedoor”.

If Jen is preoccupied with some other activity and does not opt into thesession at the scheduled time, the system server, in at least someembodiments, will not automatically start the telepresence communicationand instead will provide some type of warning to Jen to indicate thatsession commencement is late. For instance, see FIG. 50 where Jen stillhas not opted into the telepresence communication even though themeeting was supposed to start 2 minutes prior. Screen 730 is updated toindicate “Your meeting was supposed to start 2 minutes ago” as shown at760. In addition to providing the late meeting warning via text, theserver 20 may control other room attributes to clearly present an alarmor provide a warning. For instance, speakers 750 may be controlled toaudibly indicate that the meeting was to commence. As another instance,see that the color of light panels 740, 744, 734 and 736 has beenchanged from blue (as in FIG. 49) to green as indicated by the left upto right cross hatching.

In FIG. 50, a hand icon 801 is shown as a representation of Jen Blackinteracting with the table input device or surface 802. Here, forinstance, recognizing that the meeting should commence, Jen may touchsurface 802 causing the server to present other control icons includingan opt into telepresence icon 806. Jen's hand representation 801 isshown selecting icon 806 to affirmatively opt into the session.

Once Jen opts into the session, assuming that the remote employee Paulhas already opted in, the server enables audio and video communicationbetween Jen and Paul. To this end, see in FIG. 51 that Paul's image onscreen 732 is clear and no longer blurred. See also that the speakers750 in FIG. 51 are now broadcasting the meeting audio (e.g.,broadcasting Paul's spoken words to Jen in space 710).

In addition to supporting the telepresence communications, server 20 mayalso automatically control other space 710 affordances to enhance thetelepresence effect. For instance, light panels 734 and 736 on the firstor front wall 708 may be controlled to generate white light or someother light color that is optimal for telepresence activities.Similarly, side wall light panel 744 may be controlled to generate whitelight to eliminate any front light shadowing effect that could occur.Screens 742 and 746 may be controlled to present light in a color thatis known to be optimal as a background for telepresence imagingpurposes. Similarly, light panel 740 may be controlled to present anoptimally colored background. In FIG. 51 panel 740 as well as displaysscreens 742 and 746 are shown blue as indicated by the dual diagonalcross hatching. In other embodiments, other images or videos may bepresented via the display screens 742 and 746.

Once a meeting starts, lighting devices that generate light visibleoutside space 710 may be controlled to indicate the progressing orongoing meeting status. For instance, consistent with the meeting statusindicating convention described above, once the meeting starts, thestatus indicating lighting devices may be controlled to generate redlight so that employees outside space 710 have a clear indication that ameeting is progressing in space 710.

Referring still to FIG. 51, as the telepresence meeting between JenBlack and Paul Pink progresses, server 20 may present “shot clock”information that, in general, indicates information about the end of themeeting. For instance, as shown at 762 in FIG. 51, shot clockinformation may include the time remaining prior to the scheduled endingtime of the meeting. In addition, shot clock information may alsoinclude at least some information about the schedule of the space beingused during the meeting. For instance, the shot clock information mayinclude an indication of when a next meeting is scheduled to commence inthe meeting space. Using the next meeting information, Jen can determineif it is possible to use room 54 for a period that extends beyond thescheduled end of the meeting. For instance, if a next meeting in room 54is not to occur until 30 minutes after Jen and Paul's meeting, then Jenand Paul should have the option to extend their meeting in room 54without disrupting the schedule associated with room 54. The nextmeeting information in the example includes the text “Next meeting inthis space starts in 35 minutes”. In addition, a “glanceable” time line764 associated with the room 54 schedule is presented. A larger view ofthe time line is shown at 784 in FIG. 53 where the time line includes atime scale 786, a current meeting bar 788, a current time indicator 792and a next meeting indicator 790. The graphical representation 784should allow Jen to quickly assess if she needs to end the meeting withPaul by the scheduled time or if the meeting can be extended.

While not shown, in other embodiments where a remote telepresenceattendee like Paul is using an affordance configuration at anotherlocation that is also associated with a use schedule, the shot clockinformation may also include information akin to the space scheduleinformation at 764 for Jen and/or Paul to view so that the schedules ofboth the space owned by Jen and the space owned by Paul can beconsidered when determining a meeting end time. In other cases, a servermay identify which of Jen's and Paul's space is next scheduled for useafter the current meeting and may only present space scheduleinformation for that space as that space's schedule will then be thelimiting factor on how long the current meeting can proceed. Forinstance, where Jen's room 54 is scheduled for next use 30 minutes afterthe end of the current meeting and Paul's space is scheduled for use 15minutes after the end of the current meeting, only Paul's space scheduleinformation may be presented to each or at least one of Jen and Paul forconsideration.

In many cases employees meeting in room 54 or attending a meeting inroom 54 via telepresence will want to share various types of digitalcontent with other local or remote meeting attendees. For instance, inthe present example, Paul Pink may want to share a word processordocument with Jen Black via one of screens 730 or 732 and Jen may wantto share images of a new product with Paul in a similar fashion. In manycases, employees carry their own personal portable devices such aslaptops, tablet type devices, smart phones or wearable devices like asmart watch, a badge, etc., where content that may be shared is storedon one of those devices or is accessible via one of those devices (e.g.,accessible via a wireless link to a network). In the present example, anexemplary personal tablet type device (hereinafter “the tablet”) isshown at 813 in FIG. 44.

Referring still to FIG. 44, in the present example, when Jen bringstablet 813 into space 710, it is particularly advantageous if a systemserver can recognize tablet 813 in space 710 and automatically or atleast semi-automatically associate tablet 813 with space 710 andfacilitate content sharing if Jen decides to share content stored on oraccessible via device 813. To this end, several methods and processesfor automatically or semi-automatically associating a portable computingdevice with a space or specific set of affordances in a larger space aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/912,442 (hereinafter“the '442 application”) which is titled Personal Control Apparatus AndMethod For Sharing Information In A Collaboration Workspace” and whichwas filed on Jun. 7, 2013. The '442 application is incorporated hereinin its entirety by reference. In the '442 application, once a device isassociated with a space or specific set of display screens, virtualcontrol icons are presented on the portable device screen over the topof a desktop image of content being generated by an application runningon the portable device where the control icons enable the employee toselect one or more common display screens in a space to share real timedesktop images or any other content (e.g., videos) being presented onthe portable device screen. Here, in at least some cases, an overlaidvirtual interface may be automatically presented on an employee'sportable device for sharing underlying desktop content.

Referring to FIG. 52, exemplary shared content 772 is shown on screen730. In the present example, it is contemplated that the content 772 maybe provided via Jen Black's personal portable device 813 (see again FIG.44) or via a remotely linked computer being used by Paul Pink. Whencontent is shared on screen 730, the shot clock information may bereformatted and placed in a ribbon or field along an edge of thepresented content in a smaller version. For instance, see in FIGS. 52and 53 that a shot clock field is presented at 780. Field 780 includesthe time remaining information 782 as well as the glanceable spaceschedule information described above at 784.

In cases where one or more employees are using configuration 54 toamplify information and no other employee remotely links to theconfiguration, both screens 730 and 732 can be used to amplify contentfrom two different portable personal devices or, in some cases, from twodifferent applications run on the same portable device or from two othersources.

In some cases an employee may be able to access and share at least somecontent with local and remote employees using the UI provided as part ofstation 54. To this end, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/640,288(hereinafter “the '288 application”) which is titled “Method AndApparatus For Facilitating Collaboration Sessions” which was filed onMar. 6, 2015 and which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety, teaches a conferencing system that enables a user to postcontent (e.g., files, documents, records, images, etc.) to a session ormeeting queue prior to commencement of the session (and in some casesalso in real time during the session) that can be accessed during thesession to share with other conferees attending the session. In at leastsome cases a queue type system akin to the system described in the '288application may be implemented be server 20. In this case, during asession in station 54, the UI may allow an employee to access thesession content queue and share records or files in the queue viascreens 730 and 732. For example, see the exemplary content queue at1310 in FIG. 72 where content icons (e.g., 1316, 1318, etc.) may beselectable to access and share content. A queue akin to 1310 may bepresented via the top surface of table assembly 800 in station 54 (seeagain FIG. 46). Where content is shared in space 710, that content ismirrored on remote screens for remotely linked employees to see.

Referring again to FIG. 44, in at least some embodiments, it iscontemplated that a system server may automatically move a UI 804 aroundin space 710 to different screens or emissive surfaces and to differentlocations on those surfaces to present the UI 804 proximate aninstantaneous location of at least one of the employees in space 710.For instance, in FIGS. 44 and 46, if the illustrated employee were tomove to a different position on couch 738 as shown in phantom in FIG.46, the UI may be moved to the location shown in phantom at 804 a to beproximate the employee at the new location. Similarly, if an employeestands up and moved to a location proximate screen 730 as shown in FIG.52, the UI or at least an instance thereof may be moved to the locationshown at 804 b proximate the employee in space 710.

Consistent with the meeting status indicating convention describedabove, once within five minutes of the scheduled end of Jen and Paul'smeeting, server 20 may control the session indicating lighting outsidespace 710 to indicate that the end of the meeting is approaching.Consistent with the meeting status indicating convention describedabove, the status signalling lighting in the present example iscontrolled to generate blue light indicating the end of a meeting.

When Jen and Paul's meeting is over, the system server may controlconfiguration 54 affordances to help Jen transition out of space 710 andon to another affordance configuration optimized for her preferences,based on her schedule and based on other factors. To this end, see FIG.54 where the glass panels that form wall 702 are rendered transparent.Here, the wall 702 panels may be rendered transparent automatically whenthe telepresence session with Paul ends. In the alternative, the wall702 panels may remain opaque until door 714 is opened by Jen. In stillother embodiments, the wall 702 panels may be completely opaque duringthe telepresence session, rendered only partially opaque once thetelepresence session has ended and while door 714 remains in the closedposition and then rendered completely transparent when Jen opens door714. Here, by rendering the panels partially opaque prior to openingdoor 714, other employees outside space 710 should be able to seemovement within space 710 that is indicative of the employees in space710 wrapping up their meeting and Jen, in space 710, should be able toperceive if anyone is lurking about outside space 710 that may bewaiting for her to leave that space while Jen still has at least somevisual privacy within space 710.

Referring still to FIG. 54, in addition to changing opacity of wall 702panels, the server may commence another guidance activity by presentingschedule information to Jen as shown at 794 warning of a next scheduledmeeting including time and location of the next meeting. In addition,the server may again assign a guidance indicator color to Jen andpresent the assigned color as shown at 796. Here, again, Jen should beable to follow a string of visual guidance indicators through space 12 ato a destination configuration where her next scheduled activity willoccur. Where two or more employees used space 710 during a meeting,guidance information akin to information 794 for each of the employeesmay be presented via screen 730 or screen 732.

In addition, as Jen is packing up and transitioning out of space 710,server 20 may generate white light viewable from outside space 710 toindicate to other employees in the area that the ending meeting iswrapping up and employees are still packing up and leaving space 710.Once Jen and other local employees leave space 710, the statusindicators outside space 710 are controlled to either indicate thatspace 710 is available for use or to indicate that a next meeting inspace 710 will be starting shortly.

Hereafter, several processes for expediting initiation of atelecommunication session where an employee simply walks up to anamplifying kiosk without having first requested a telepresence sessionare described. In at least some cases it is contemplated that anemployee may be able to take ownership of one of the enhances privacystations 54 by simply walking up to an available (i.e., unowned) station54 and starting to use that station. Here, the expeditedtelecommunication session processes described below in the context of anexemplary kiosk may also be supported in a station 54.

E. Content Amplifying Kiosk

In some cases, a first employee may need a space for amplifying hercontent to share with another local employee or may need to participatein a telepresence session with a remote employee where the firstemployee does not want to take ownership of a full room configuration(e.g., 54 or 62) for some reason. For instance, in cases where afacility has only a limited number of full room configurations, anemployee that only needs content amplifying or telepresence capabilitiesfor a short time may want to leave the full room configurations for useby other employees. As another instance, where an employee does notrequire complete visual and/or audio privacy, the employee may simplywant to access amplifying tools or telepresence tools as quickly aspossible and as closely as possible.

The exemplary amplifying kiosk 58 shown in FIGS. 55 through 61 isoptimized for semi-private telepresence sessions and contentamplification. The general structure of kiosk 58 is described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/320,984 titled “Work And Video ConferenceAssembly” which was filed on Jul. 1, 2014 and which is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference. In general, kiosk assembly 58includes an upright frame structure 832 that supports a substantiallyhorizontal table top member 834. The frame structure 832 extends upwardadjacent a rear edge of the top member 834 and supports a shroud 842that wraps about a receiving space that opens forward in the directionof top member 834. A flat panel display screen 836 is mounted in thereceiving space to be located adjacent and above the rear edge of topmember 834. A high definition camera 838 is mounted centrally abovescreen 836 which is useable to facilitate telepresence sessions. Adirectional microphone or sound sensor device 873 is mounted to one ofthe frame or the shroud and is directed toward an area that is generallyaligned with a field of view of the camera 838 so that when an employeeis located in the field of view of the camera and speaks, the employee'sspoken words can be obtained. The shroud 842 includes wing members 840that extend laterally to provide at least some privacy for informationon screen 836.

Referring still to FIG. 55, a guidance indicator 30 y is mounted at thetop end of one of the wing members 840 to be viewed from the screen sideof shroud 842. While indicator 30 y is shown as independent of screen836, in other cases screen 836 or a portion thereof may be controlled toprovide the indicator functionality. As in the other configurationsdescribed above, whenever an employee is using or temporarily owns akiosk, an indicator (see 906 in FIG. 61) indicating the specificemployee is presented at the configuration. Here, the indicator letsother employees know that Jen Black temporarily owns the kiosk. Inaddition, the indicator makes clear who messages, notices, etc., arebeing provided to by the kiosk subassembly and system server.

Referring to FIG. 57, another display screen 880 is mounted to the rearsurface of shroud 842 in at least some embodiments. Screen 842 may becontrolled to present various types of information as shown such as, forinstance, visual guidance indicators 30 z, a do not disturb indicator884, a quiet reminder 886, name plate (e.g., “Jen Black”) or kioskownership (e.g., “Available”, “Occupied”, etc.) information 882, etc.Other information may also be provided via screen 880. Screen 880 may bea flat panel electronic screen, projected, etc.

Referring again to FIG. 55, a leg assembly 845 that supports top member834 may be height adjustable as indicated by double headed arrow 841 sothat the height of the table top can be adjusted to meet an employee'spreference. In at least some cases the leg assembly 845 will include amotor or other type of actuator that can be controlled by server 20 toraise and lower the table top 834 automatically to meet employeepreferences when an employee takes ownership of the kiosk. In at leastsome cases controls will be provided to allow an employee to adjusttable top height as described in more detail hereafter.

Referring still to FIG. 55, in at least some cases camera 838 may bemounted via a swivel assembly and may include a motor or other type ofactuator that can be used to adjust the position of the camera's fieldof view up and down as indicated by double headed arrow 839. In at leastsome cases it is contemplated that a system server 20 may be programmedto receive images or video from camera 838, examine the images toidentify faces of employees at kiosk 58 and to then adjust camera 838accordingly and automatically to optimize the images presented to aremote telepresence participant. Thus, for instance, where an employeeat kiosk 58 moves from a seated position to a standing position, thecamera 838 may be controlled to raise the camera's field of view tomaintain relative position of the employee in the field of view. Inother cases, the camera's orientation and field of view may be linked tothe height of the table top 834 so that as the table top is raised andlowered, the trajectory of the camera's field of view is raised andlowered accordingly.

In at least some embodiments, in addition to the table top 834 beingmoveable up and down, screen 836 may be mounted to the shroud and frameassembly to be raised and lowered to meet preferences or automaticallyto optimize for different table top 834 heights or different heights orpositions of employees at the kiosk 58. To this end, the U.S.application Ser. No. 14/320,984 which is incorporated above by referencein its entirety describes a screen height adjustment system includingactuators that may be automatically controlled to change the height of ascreen supported within a shroud defined space. The '984 applicationassembly may be included in at least some embodiments of the kioskassembly contemplated here.

Referring to FIGS. 56 and 58, in at least some embodiments it iscontemplated that a capacitive touch control panel or interface 835 akinto the bench and focus station interfaces described above may be builtinto kiosk table top member 834 for controlling various features of thekiosk 58. In FIG. 58 the exemplary interface 835 includes a plate typeRF ID reader 888, up and down buttons 890 and 892 for adjusting theheight of the table top 834 (as well as the camera 838 angle and/or thescreen 836 height in some cases), a content amplify button 860, atelepresence button 862, a do not disturb button 894, a quiet button898, a mute/unmute button 896, and a content/telepresence toggle button900. RF ID reader device 888 enables employees to walk up to kiosk 58and take temporary ownership in at least some embodiments. In othercases association with kiosk 58 may be established by a system serveroffering ownership to a proximate employee and the proximate employeeaccepting ownership in some fashion. For instance, when an employeewalks up to kiosk 58, a server may flash fade buttons 860 and 862 on andoff with green illumination and may present an invitation via screen 838to the present employee asking if the employee would like to use thekiosk 58. The invitation may be generic or may, where employee identityis known, be specific to the present employee (e.g., “Welcome Jen Black.Would you like to use this kiosk?”). Here, the employee could selecteither of the fading on and off buttons 860 or 862 to take ownership.

In general, kiosk 58 is optimized to facilitate two different types ofactivities including content amplification and telepresence sessions. Tothis end, button 860 may be selected to indicate that the employee wantsto present content in an amplified format (e.g., a large format) onscreen 836. Second, button 862 may be selected to indicate that theemployee wants to use the kiosk to facilitate a telepresence session.

When amplification button 860 is selected, the system server may guidethe employee through a quick process to associate specific content withkiosk 58 for sharing. Here, the association process may includeidentifying a document or the like that is stored in a database linkedto the server 20. For instance, a session or meeting queue as describedin the '288 application that is incorporated by reference above may beaccessible to an employee at kiosk 58 for accessing and sharing content.In other cases, the association process may require an employee to linka portable laptop (see 857 in FIG. 55) or other computing device used bythe employee to the kiosk either wirelessly or via a cable (notillustrated) that forms part of the kiosk assembly. Again, the '442application which is incorporated above in its entirety by referenceteaches several device to amplifying system association processes, anyof which may be used in the systems described in the present disclosure.

When telepresence button 862 is selected, a system server may requestother system or other employee information useable to identify anothertelepresence system to connect to. Here, the server may present a listof telepresence systems and enable the employee to select one systemfrom the list. In a better system, a first employee may indicate asecond employee that the first employee wants to commence a session withand the server 20 may be programmed to attempt to locate the secondemployee proximate a telepresence system in any enterprise facility (oreven non-enterprise facilities where the location tracking system cantrack employee locations in non-enterprise spaces). If the secondemployee is located and a second telepresence system (e.g., atelepresence system in addition to the one at kiosk 58) is available inthe general area of the second employee, the system may cause an e-mail,text or other message type to be transmitted to the second employee toinvite the second employee to the telepresence session. Here, the invitemessage may indicate the location of the second telepresence system.

Upon the second employee accepting the invite, the kiosk or otheraffordance configuration that includes the second telepresence systemmay be assigned to the second employee and some type of ownershipindication (e.g., yellow light, a salutation for the second employee,nameplate type information) may be presented at that kiosk until thesecond employee arrives. In addition, once the second employee acceptsthe invite, server 20 may initiate a telepresence communication linkbetween the telepresence system at kiosk 58 and the second telepresencesystem so that when the second employee arrives at the secondtelepresence system, the telepresence session may commence immediately.

Communication link status, employee status and session opt in status maybe indicated via kiosk 58 in any of the ways described above withrespect to the enhanced privacy station 54. For instance, text messagesmay be presented via screen 836 indicating that the remote employee'svideo connection is queued up for the session and that the remoteemployee has opted into the telepresence session. In the alternative, amore glanceable indication of link, employee and session opt in statusmay be presented. To this end, for instance, regardless of the locationsof Jen and Bart in the present example, once a telepresencecommunication link is established or after at least one of a local and aremote employee has opted into the session or after both the remote andlocal employees have opted into the session, a distorted image (see 904in FIG. 60) of the scene captured by the telepresence cameras at eachend of the link may be presented at the other end of the link. I stillother cases, prior to a remote employee opting into the telepresencesession, the blurred image on screen 836 may be presented without anyhighlighting border or frame. Once the remote employee opts into thesession, in some cases, a green border or some other type of indicatormay be presented about the blurred image to indicate that the remoteemployee has opted into the session and is waiting for the local to optin. Similar opt in signaling may be provided at the remote end of thelink so that the remote employee is aware of whether or not the localemployee has opted into the session. Once both the local and remoteemployees opt into the session, full audio and video communication maycommence. As in the case of station 54 above, in other cases, othersequences of link, employee and session status indications arecontemplated.

When the second employee arrives at the second telepresence system andafter the telepresence communication link is established, the secondemployee can opt into the session via selection of a telepresence buttonor the like akin to button 862 in FIG. 58. When the second employeearrives at the second telepresence system, the system server may presenta welcoming salutation and instructions to opt in by selecting thetelepresence button. Here, the server may first determine identity ofthe arriving employee and may only allow opt in after confirming theidentity of the second employee in some fashion (e.g., an RF ID badge,face or other biometric recognition, etc.).

To expedite the telepresence initiation process even more, when a firstemployee arrives at kiosk 58, the system server 20 may automaticallydetermine the identity of the first employee and access the firstemployee's schedule. If the first employee is scheduled for either atelepresence session or, in some cases, any type of meeting with asecond or more remote employees, the system may be programmed to atleast initially assume that the first employee intends to start atelepresence session with the remote second (or more) employee. Here,the initial greeting salutation may query if the first employee wants toinitiate a telepresence session. To this end, see FIG. 59 where screen836 greets Jen Black when she arrives at kiosk 58, indicates a meetingJen has scheduled with a second employee Bart Orange, and queries if Jenwould like to initiate a telepresence session with Bart. Interface 835is also shown in FIG. 59 where the telepresence button 862 is shownilluminated green to invite Jen to initiate a telepresence session withBart Orange. When button 862 is selected, the process of identifying asecond telepresence system and making that system available to BartOrange as described above would commence.

In still other embodiments, where a first employee approaches a kiosk 58and has a meeting scheduled with a second remote employee within someshort threshold time period (e.g., 10 minutes), system server 20 mayautomatically and immediately attempt to locate the second employee anddetermine if the second employee is proximate a second telepresencesystem. Here, prior to either the first or second employee indicating adesire to initiate a telepresence session, the server 20 may initiate acommunication link between the first and second telepresence systems andsend an e-mail or other invitation to the second employee to participateand indicating a kiosk or other affordance configuration that includesthe second telepresence system for use by the second employee. In thiscase, when the first employee arrives at kiosk 58, the salutation shownin FIG. 59 may be presented and, if the offer of a session is accepted,the session can start more quickly and, in at least some cases, may beinitiated immediately as the communication link may already beestablished and the second employee may already be located at the secondtelepresence system.

Thus, in a highly automated system contemplated here, first and secondemployees at different locations but proximate first and secondtelepresence systems where the first and second employees have a meetingscheduled within a threshold time period may automatically triggersetting up a telepresence session between the first and secondtelepresence systems and a session offer to the first and secondemployees that requires opt in from each to be started.

In still other embodiments, where first and second employees are atdifferent locations and proximate first and second telepresence systemsand the first and second employees have a meeting scheduled within athreshold time period, where a telepresence communication link isautomatically established, blurred images from the first and secondtelepresence systems may be presented via the screens at the second andfirst systems, respectively, along with an opt in offer at each systemfor the first and second employees to accept. In this regard, see FIG.60 where a blurred image of a remote scene from a remote telepresencesystem is shown at 904 with a request for the local employee to opt intoa telepresence session as shown at 902. Again, button 862 is illuminatedto invite the local employee to opt into the session.

Here, prior to one of the employees arriving within the field of view ofthe camera at a proximate telepresence system, the blurred imagepresented at the other end of the linked systems would not include theemployee. Once an employee moves into the field of view of the camera ata proximate telepresence system the blurred image presented at the otherend of the linked systems would include a representation of the employeeand be an indication to the other employee that the session is ready tocommence. Thus, in this case, two employees that are remote from eachother that have a meeting scheduled for a specific time simply need toarrive at proximate telepresence systems at about the scheduled meetingtime and the system will automatically initiate a telepresence sessionusing the proximate telepresence systems, only requiring that eachemployee opt into the session to actually start intelligible audio andvideo communication.

In still other embodiments it is contemplated versions of any one of theautomated or semi-automated telepresence systems described above may beimplemented where a remote employee uses a portable computing devicewith a camera and a screen instead of a second telepresence systemprovided as part of an affordance configuration. For instance, where afirst and second employees at different locations have a meetingscheduled and the first employee is approaching a first kiosk 58, again,the system server may automatically attempt to initiate a telepresencesession between the first and second employees. Here, if the servereither cannot determine the location of the second employee or thesecond employee is not near a dedicated telepresence system, the servermay automatically attempt to initiate a telepresence session between thetelepresence system at the first kiosk and a portable computing deviceused by the second employee. In this case, the process of initiating thecommunication link would be similar to that described above. Once thelink is automatically made, an option to opt in can be provided to eachof the first and second employees, the offer to the first employee beingmade via the screen at the first kiosk 58.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that a kiosk may be usedto simultaneously amplify content at the kiosk as well as to participatein a telepresence session. Here, in some cases two substantiallysimilarly sized rectangular windows (not illustrated) may be opened upon screen 836 where content is shared in one window and a telepresenceimage of a remote employee is presented in the second window in a splitscreen fashion. In other cases, one or the other of content and atelepresence image may be presented in a large format as shown at 908 inFIG. 61 while the other of the content and telepresence image may bepresented in a smaller window or picture in picture window as shown at910 in FIG. 61. Here, the content to telepresence toggle button 900 maybe selected to toggle between content and the telepresence image.

While a telepresence session is progressing, to add contentamplification to the session, in at least some embodiments an employeemay simply select content amplification button 860. Once button 860 isselected, an employee identifies content to share and then the sharedcontent is presented on display screen 836. Again, the content to sharemay be provided by a cable connected or wirelessly linked laptop (seeagain 857 in FIG. 55) or in some other fashion. Similarly, to addtelepresence to a meeting while kiosk 58 is already being used toamplify content, button 862 is selected and some process for identifyinganother telepresence system to link to would commence.

In at least some embodiments, as indicated at 884 and 886 in FIG. 57,some type of signaling designed to affect behavior of employees in thegeneral area of kiosk 58 is controlled by system server 20. Forinstance, referring also to FIG. 58, when an employee selects the do notdisturb icon 894, the do not disturb indicator 884 is presentedpersistently via screen 880 on the back surface of the shroud 842. Asanother instance, when an employee selects the silence or quiet button898, indicator 886 may be persistently presented to encourage employeesin the general area to keep noise down. In other cases indicator 886 mayonly be presented when sound sensors (e.g., microphones) in the areaincluding kiosk 58 pick up noise at a level that exceeds a thresholdlevel. In still other cases, whenever a telepresence session isprogressing at kiosk 58, indicator 886 may be automatically persistentlypresented or, again, may be presented when noise level in the area aboutthe kiosk rises above a threshold level. In at least some cases thesystem server may be programmed to compare voices of employees at kiosk58 and picked up by directional microphone 873 to voices picked upgenerally by microphones 877 in an area about kiosk 58 and the quietindicator 886 may only be presented when noise other than the voices ofthe employees at kiosk 58 exceeds the threshold level.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that the system servermay monitor the volume of words spoken by employees at kiosk 58 and mayperform some process to avoid the case where audible content can beheard by other employees that are not participating in activities at thekiosk or at locations remotely linked to the kiosk. For instance, unlessan employee purposefully and knowingly turns up the telepresence volume,in some cases, the server may limit the telepresence volume to a maximumlevel intended to avoid broadcast past a small area associated withkiosk 58. As another instance, where an employee using kiosk 58 isspeaking too loudly, an indicator 914 as shown in FIG. 61 may bepresented to encourage a lower volume. An employee's volume may bedetermined via sound received at microphone 873 or via sound received bythe microphones 977 in the general area of kiosk 58 or by anycombination thereof. For instance, again, sound picked up by the generalarea microphones 877 may be compared to sound picked up by kioskmicrophone 873 to identify the source of the sound (e.g., from the kioskor from the area generally) and, where the sound from employees at thekiosk alone exceeds the threshold level, the indicator 914 may bepresented.

In still other cases, it is contemplated that microphones (notillustrated) located at a connected end of a telepresence session may beused to measure the volume of voice from a local employee and toindicate if the local employee should speak louder. For instance, in thepresent example, if Jen Black is speaking too softly for Bart Orange onthe other end of a telepresence session to hear well, the server maypresent a message 912 encouraging Jen to speak louder as shown in FIG.61. While not shown, in some cases the interface 835 (see again FIG. 61)may include another button selectable by a local employee for indicatingto a remote employee linked to a telepresence session that the remoteemployee should speak more loudly.

In some embodiments noise level or volume level indicators may only bepresented when one or more other employees are at locations where thevolume level could be disruptive. For instance, if only one employee islocated in space 12 a in FIG. 1, it makes no sense to indicate that theemployee's volume level is to high and therefore the indicator 914 inFIG. 61 may not be presented. In some cases whether or not indicator 914is presented or not given a specific volume level will be based onlocations of other employees in space 12 a. For instance, where a secondemployee is forty feet from a kiosk 58 and a microphone proximate thesecond employee does not pick up any sound from the kiosk 58, noindication 914 would be present but if the second employee moves to alocation twenty feet from the kiosk where a proximate microphone sensessound at a volume level that exceeds a threshold level from kiosk 58,indicator 914 would be presented.

In some embodiments, at least some affordance control tools may beprovided on the display screen of a personal portable device. To thisend, for instance, see FIG. 62 where a portable laptop computer 857 isillustrated that includes, among other components a display screen 920for presenting content and a subset of kiosk control tools. Exemplarycontent is shown at 922 while exemplary kiosk control tools are shown ina left edge ribbon or toll bar section of screen 920. The exemplarykiosk control tools include a telepresence icon 924, a contentamplification icon 926, a do not disturb icon 928, a silence requesticon 930, a mute/unmute icon 932 and a speak louder icon 934. Here, theicons 924, 926, 928, 930 and 932 control the kiosk structure 58 in waysthat are akin to the way the similarly labeled buttons in FIG. 58control the kiosk components. Speak louder icon 934 is selectable toindicate to a remote employee linked via a telepresence system to thekiosk 58 to speak louder.

Referring still to FIG. 62, here, it is contemplated that an employeewill associate her laptop 857 with a kiosk in some fashion and, once theassociation is complete, system server 20 will cause the control icontool bar to be presented over the desktop image presented on screen 920via output of a different application running on the laptop 857.Initially the desktop image may not be duplicated on the kiosk screen836 but once icon 926 is selected, the desktop image may be duplicatedon screen 836. To switch between the desktop image and a telepresenceimage on screen 836, an employee would simply select icon 924 to causethe telepresence image to be presented in large format on kiosk screen836.

Kiosk ownership may be indicated via control of lighting or othersignalling devices at the kiosk in a fashion similar to that describedabove with respect to the personal bench and the focus station. In atleast some cases it is contemplated that the color signalling conventionwill be similar throughout enterprise spaces. Thus, for instance, yellowlight may signal ownership but that the owner is either currently absent(e.g., travelling to a configuration, is currently using a differentconfiguration (e.g., an employee that owns a bench is currently using akiosk to amplify content), stepped away to a restroom, etc.), greenlight may indicate ownership and that the owner is present and using aconfiguration, other colors may indicate that an employee's scheduledtime using a space is coming to an end shortly, etc.

F. Team Studio Configuration

Referring now to FIGS. 63 through 74, an exemplary team studioconfiguration 62 is illustrated that, in general, includes wallsubassemblies that define a team studio space 1010 to support trams ofemployees as they share content with each other and, in at least somecases, with remotely located employees. While the studio configuration62 may be used at times by individual employees or small groups like twoemployees or by one local and one remote employee to facilitate ateleconference session, the configuration 62 affordances have beendesigned with a mid-size group (e.g., 6 to 12 employees) in mind andtherefore includes affordances optimized to facilitate work activitiesfor that size group.

Exemplary studio 62 includes first, second, third and fourth wallsubassemblies 1000, 1002, 1004 and 1006, respectively, as well as aceiling structure 1020, first and second table assemblies 1012 and 1014,speakers 999 and a plurality of task chairs, two of which are labeled1018. In addition, in at least some embodiments, curved wall sections orsubassemblies may be provided at the intersections of adjacent wallsubassemblies 1000, 1002, 1004 and 1006, so that the typically “wasted”corners of space 1010 are rendered relatively more useful. For instance,in FIG. 63, corner subassemblies 1003 and 1005 are shown generallybetween adjacent wall subassemblies 1002 and 1004 and adjacent wallsubassemblies 1004 and 1006, respectively. A third curved wallsubassembly 1007 is shown in FIG. 72 between wall subassemblies 1006 and1000.

Referring specifically to FIGS. 63 and 65 through 67, first wallsubassembly 1000 includes a frame structure 1001 to which various typesof functional panel subassemblies are mounted. As in the case of theenhanced privacy configuration 54 described above, some or at least asubset of the wall panels that form the wall subassemblies of studio 64may be constructed using the teachings in the '842 and '271 patents aswell as the '254 application, each of which has been incorporated in itsentirety by reference above. In other cases, other technology may beemployed to provide light in or on panel surfaces, change opacity ofsome of the panel subassemblies, mount screens or emissive surfaces,etc.

Referring still to FIGS. 63 and 65 through 67, the exemplary first wallsubassembly 1000 includes first through fifth panel inserts orsubassemblies 1044, 1046, 1048, 1050 and 1052, respectively, and a glassdoor subassembly 1054, that mount to frame assembly 1001. First panelsubassembly 1044 includes two opaque panel members that form an internalpanel surface 1025 (seen in FIG. 67) and an oppositely facing externalpanel surface 1023 (see in FIG. 65). The internal surface 1025, in atleast some embodiments, provides a field on which digital content may bepresented (e.g., projected). In at least some embodiments, the internalsurface 1025 may be constructed via an emissive electronic member akinto a display screen so that relatively high definition content can bepresented thereon. In other cases, surface 1025 may be a projectionsurface on which content can be projected via a ceiling or otherwisemounted projector (see 1034 in FIG. 63) located in space 1010. Unlessindicated otherwise hereafter, it will be assumed that content isprojected via projector 1034 onto surface 1025 where the projector iscontrolled by system server 20. Referring specifically to FIG. 67,similarly, it will be assumed that content is provided on each of thesurfaces of wall subassemblies 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005 and 1007 viaprojection (see additional projectors at 1030 and 1032 in FIG. 63).However, as in the case of surface 1025, any of the surfaces of wallsubassemblies 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005 and 1007 may be constructed toinclude an electronic emissive surface for presenting digital content.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 63 and 65 through 67, first panelsubassembly 1044 has a height dimension (not labeled) that is selectedto be high enough that an average height employee cannot see over thetop edge thereof and into space 1010 on the other side of the wallsubassembly 1000. Thus, in at least some embodiments, panel subassembly1044 will have a height dimension within a range between six feet andeight feet and, in particularly advantageous embodiments, will have aheight dimension within a range between six and one half foot and sevenand one half foot.

Referring again to FIGS. 63 and 65 through 67, second panel subassemblyand third panel subassembly 1046 and 1048 are each single or dual sidedglass panel assemblies where the glass mounted therein is clear and, inat least some embodiments, always remains transparent. Here, becausepanels 1046 and 1048 are generally above eye level of typical employees,those panels do not have to block employee view to facilitate privacy inspace 1010. By leaving panels 1046 and 1048 clear, an employee outsidespace 1010 can have a view into the top portion of space 1010 that canbe useful when determining if the space is currently being utilized.Thus, for instance if an employee looks up through panels 1046 and 1048and sees lights on in space 1010 or sees the flicker of reflected videoor image light from one of the presentation fields or screens, theemployee can quickly get a sense of whether or not space 1010 iscurrently being utilized.

Referring still to FIGS. 63 and 65 through 67, the lower panels 1050 and1052 as well as the glass panel that is included in door assembly 1054include opacity controllable glass akin to the glass described abovewith respect to the enhanced privacy station 54. Thus, the glass in eachof panels 1050 and 1052 as well as the glass in door assembly 1054 arecontrolled by server 20 to render each of the panels and the doorassembly either substantially clear or essentially completely opaque sothat the panels and door can be seen through or can block the vision ofan employee from outside space 1010 into that space. In FIG. 65, panels1050 and 1052 and door 1054 are shown clear so that an employee outsidespace 1010 can easily view space 1010 and obtain a sense of what isgoing on in space 1010. In FIG. 66, panels 1050 and 1052 and door 1054are shown opaque so that an employee outside space 1010 cannot see intothat space.

In addition, in at least some embodiments, light devices may be mountedin one or each of the glass panel subassemblies 1046, 1048, 1050 and1052 and/or in door assembly 1054 so that those panels can generatelight one or both of inside and outside space 1010. In some cases thelight devices in the wall 1000 panels may be controllable to generateany color and therefore may be useable to signal different information(e.g., present guidance signals, to indicate status in space 1010 (e.g.,availability, a ready condition, in use, etc.)).

Referring now to FIGS. 63, 64 and 67, second wall subassembly 1002includes a flat internal surface on which digital content can beprojected (or otherwise presented where assembly 1002 includes anelectronic emissive surface). In the illustrated embodiment theprojection surface comprises substantially the entire wall surface. Inother cases the projection section of wall subassembly 1002 may comprisea smaller section of the overall wall such as, for instance, the sectionof the wall surface that resides above a typical table top height (e.g.,above 26 to 32 inches). Similarly curved wall subassemblies 1003, 1005and 1007 each presents a projection surface, albeit a curved projectionsurface, on which digital content may be projected or otherwisepresented. Again, the projection surfaces of subassemblies 1003, 1005and 1007 cover substantially the entire internal surfaces of thosesubassemblies while in other embodiments smaller section of thosesubassemblies may present projection surfaces. As shown in FIG. 67, theedges of adjacent sections of wall subassemblies 1002 and 1003 aresubstantially flush so that the flat surface of wall subassembly 1002runs into and is substantially contiguous with the curved surfaceprovided by wall subassembly 1003.

Referring still to FIGS. 63, 64 and 67, third wall subassembly 1004 andcurved wall subassembly 1005 are substantially similar to second wallsubassembly 1002 and curved wall subassembly 1003 with two exceptions.First, wall subassembly 1004 has a greater overall length than wallsubassembly 1002 as subassembly 1004 extends along a long dimension ofspace 1010. Second, a projection surface 1011 portion of subassembly1004 stops short of the right edge of subassembly 1004 so that aguidance or boot up display screen 1045 can be mounted adjacent theright edge of subassembly 1004 as illustrated. Here, screen 1045 ispresented at a location where the screen 1045 is positionedsubstantially immediately opposite door 1054 (see FIG. 54) so that whenan employee enters space 1010, if the employee is looking straight on,the employee will see screen 1045 immediately and screen 1045 thereforeoperates to sort of greet the employee arriving in space 1010 andpresent orienting information as described hereafter. The type ofinformation presented via screen 1045 is, in some cases, relativelydetailed and therefore, in those cases, screen 1045 should include ahigh definition screen so that smaller content can easily and clearly beperceived. In other cases, screen 1045 may not be included on wallsubassembly 1004 and instead, the functionality of screen 1045 describedherein may be provided via a field akin to the field presented by screen1045 that is projected onto the wall subassembly 1004.

Referring again to FIG. 67, exemplary fourth wall subassembly 1006include first and second large flat panel displays 1040 and 1042, upperand lower lighted panel subassemblies 1041 and 1043, respectively, andfirst and second cameras 1047 and 1049, respectively. Each of screens1040 and 1042 has a width dimension that is similar to half the widthdimension of space 1010 and a height dimension that is substantially onethird of or greater than the height dimension of wall assembly 1006.Each screen 1040 and 1042, in some embodiments, has a width dimensionbetween 3 and 6 feet and in particularly useful embodiments has a widthdimension within a range between 3 and one half feet and five feet whilethe height of each screen is within a range between two feet and fivefeet. Cameras 1047 and 1049 are mounted adjacent top edges and centrallywith respect to each of screens 1040 and 1042 so that they obtain imagesof space 1010 that are generally aligned with the locations of screens1040 and 1042 in space 1010.

The cameras 1047 and 1049 may be used, in at least some embodiments, tofacilitate telepresence sessions like those described above in thecontext of the enhanced privacy station 54 and the amplifying kiosk 58.Here, server 20 may automatically boot up the telepresence system priorto commencement of a meeting where remote employees are scheduled toattend the meeting. In addition, an employee will be able to walk up toan available team studio 62 and start a telepresence session that wasnot scheduled for the space 1010 by following a simplified protocol. Inat least some cases it is also contemplated that server 20 mayautomatically attempt to establish a telepresence communication linkwith one or more remote employees automatically when a local employeeapproaches or walks into space 1010 if the local and remote employeeshave a scheduled meeting even if space 1010 was not previously reservedfor that meeting. This automated on the fly telepresence process wouldbe similar to the process described above in the context of kiosk 58.

Referring still to FIG. 67, light panel 1041 is shown as a single panelbut in other cases two or more light panels may be included in panel1041. Similarly, lower panel 1043 may be formed of two or more lightpanels. Each of the exemplary panels 1041 and 1043 is constructed asdescribed in the '254 patent application that is incorporated byreference in its entirety above and can be controlled to generate manydifferent colors of light to set mood, provide specific lighting effectsfor different activities performed in space 1010, etc.

Referring yet again to FIG. 67, corner wall subassembly 1007 is similarto the other corner wall subassemblies 1003 and 1005 described above.Again, the internal projection surface adjacent the edge of curved wallsubassembly 1007 that is next to surface 1025 is substantially flushtherewith so that content can be presented in an essentially continuousfashion across the edge.

In still other embodiments where high definition content is to bepresented and shared among employees in space 1010, one or moreadditional high definition flat panel electronic display screens may bemounted to or otherwise integrated into one or more of wallsubassemblies 1000, 1002 and 1004. In this regard, for instance, seeFIG. 72 where four shared content fields 1200 a, 1200 b, 1200 c and 1200d are shown on configuration walls. Here, each of the shared contentfields may represent an electronic display screen for presenting highdefinition content. Where the fields 1200 a through 1200 d are separatescreens, additional content may still be projected about the screens asshown best in FIG. 72. In still other cases, server 20 may control theprojectors associated with space 1010 to project content fields 1200 athrough 1200 d onto the space defining walls and to also projectadditional background content about the fields as shown in FIG. 72.

Referring now to FIGS. 63 and 67 through 69, the ceiling subassembly1020 will now be described. Unless indicated otherwise, the phrase “haloassembly” or “halo structure” will be used hereinafter to refer toceiling subassembly 1020. The exemplary halo assembly 1020 includes,among other things, a frame structure 1070, laser projector devices1033, a fabric central member 1080, a diffuser plate 1082, a reflectorassembly 1073 and LED light strips or devices 1075. The frame structure1070 includes rigid inner frame 1072 and rigid outer frame 1074connected by cross frame members (not labeled) where the inner and outerframes 1072 and 1074 have similar shapes and the inner frame is smallerthan the outer frame. In the example shown, the inner frame is spacedgenerally inward from the outer frame by a gap G that has a dimensionwithin a range between six inches and two feet and in a particularlyadvantageous embodiment the range with between 8 inches and one foot.The inner frame member 1072 is spaced above the outer frame member 1074as best shown in FIG. 69 so that a line between the two frames form anangle with a horizontal plane that is within a range between 15 degreesand 75 degrees and in particularly advantageous embodiments is within arange between 30 degrees and 50 degrees. The frame assembly 1070 alsoincludes a cross bar 1081 and mounting brackets 1092 (see FIG. 69) thatextend downward to the other frame components from an ambient ceilingstructure (not shown).

Referring again to FIGS. 68 and 69, member 1080 is a fabric member thatis designed to operate as a projection screen where images are projectedonto a top surface and appear on the undersurface when viewed from below(i.e., member 1080 operates as a rear projection screen). Member 1080has a shape and dimensions that are similar to the shape and dimensionsof inner frame member 1072 so that member 1080 can be stretched taughtwithin the opening defined by member 1072.

Diffuser plate 1082 includes a rigid and resilient plastic member thatis shaped generally like frame structure 1070 and includes integratedfeatures that can hold or clip member 1082 to the frame structure 1070.To this end, see in FIG. 69 that plate member 1082 includes curled orcurved portions 1088 and 1090 along inner and outer edges, respectively,that are designed to engage the inner and outer frame members 1072 and1074, respectively. Curved portions 1088 and 1090 each forms a channelthat has a shape similar to the shape of an associated frame member1072, 1074 that the portion snaps to upon assembly. Slits (see 1084 inFIG. 69) may be provided periodically along each of the inner and outeredges of member 1082 so that the curved portions each comprise a set ofcurved portion fingers that can resiliently move independent of adjacentfingers to enable greater flexibility. Plate member 1082 is formed of atransparent or at least semi-transparent plastic material so that lightcan pass there through. In some cases the inner or outer surface ofmember 1082 will include a light diffusing pattern to increase theuniformity of appearance of the light passing there through. As shown,in at least some embodiments, a lateral edge of fabric screen member1080 may be trapped by curved section 1088 against inner frame member1072 upon assembly so that the lower surface of screen member 1080 has asubstantially uniform and flat appearance.

Referring still to FIGS. 68 and 69, reflector member 1073 is mounted toframe structure 1070 between inner and outer frame members 1072 and 1074and forms a generally downward and inward facing reflection surface 1079between members 1072 and 1074. The reflecting surface may be curvedparabolically from each frame member 1072 and 1074 in some cases so thatlight generated by LED light strips mounted to the frame members 1072and 10874 appears substantially uniform below diffuser member 1082. LEDlight strips 1075 are mounted to each of the frame members 1072 and 1074to direct light upward and generally toward the reflecting surface 1079.Light directed at surface 1079 reflects off that surface and toward theupper surface of diffuser member 1082 and then through the diffusermember 1082 and down below halo assembly 1020 into space 1010.

Referring yet again to FIGS. 63 and 69, a projector 1032 is mounted toan ambient ceiling structure (not illustrated) and is positioned todirect projected content onto the top surface of screen member 1080.Thus, for instance, a single light pattern (e.g., white light, greenlight, etc.) may be projected onto the upper surface of member 1080causing the lower surface thereof to glow with the projected pattern. Asanother instance, sky imagery may be projected onto member 1080 to showa daytime sky, a nighttime sky, a stormy sky, a sunny sky, etc.

Referring again to FIGS. 63, 64 and 67, table assemblies 1012 and 1014are similarly constructed and therefore only table assembly 1012 will bedescribed here in any detail. Table assembly 1012 includes a supportingleg structure 993 that supports a substantially horizontal table topmember 995 at a seated height (e.g., 26-34 inches depending on chairheight). The top member 995 forms a rigid top surface 997 that isdesigned to, among other things, show up imagery or icons projectedthere onto by laser projectors 1033 in the halo structure above. In theillustrated embodiment, table 1012 is spaced from wall subassembly 1006by 4 to 6 feet so that an employee can, if desired, move through thatopen space and to one of the screens 1040 and 1042 to interact withcontent presented thereon. Similarly, table assembly 1014 is spaced fromwall subassembly 1002 by 4 to 6 feet to allow employees to pass therethrough. The top members (e.g., 995) of assemblies 1012 and 1014 arespaced apart by 2 to 6 feet and, in particularly useful embodiments, by3 to 4 feet, so that an employee can move into the space there betweenif desired.

Referring to FIGS. 63, 68 and 69, in at least some embodiments one ormore laser projector units 1033 may be mounted to the halo assemblyframe structure 1070 and generally positioned to direct a laser lightbeam downward toward top surfaces of table assemblies 1012 and 1014.Here, the laser projectors are to be controlled to present images on thetop surfaces of the table tops below to present information to employeesin space 1010 and, in some cases, to present actionable tools or icons(see 1103 in FIGS. 64 and 69 and 1300 in FIG. 72) that can be selectedto control various aspects of space 1010. Where the projected icons orimages are actionable, devices 1033 may also include cameras for sensingselection or other action intended to interact with the presented iconsor images. For instance, in FIG. 64 where the universal interface image1103 is presented, a camera in device 1033 may be able to detect when anemployee waves his hand above the image 1103 and in response, maypresent a full UI as shown at 1300 in FIG. 71 for use by the employee.

In addition, in at least some cases the camera that is included indevice 1033 may be able to detect locations of employees positionedabout the table tops below as well as locations of materials (e.g.,laptops, books, etc.) on the table tops and may automatically presentimage 1103 or some other control interface imagery or icons at alocation proximate one of the employees or at locations proximate eachof the employees that does not overlap any of the materials on the tabletop surface. In this way, space affordance control can be, in effect,disposed for immediate selection by one or all of the employees in space1010 automatically.

In other cases the top surfaces of the table assemblies 1012 and 1014may be electronic emissive surfaces and may be touch sensitive so thatUIs can be presented to employees at any locations on the top surfacesof the assemblies 1012 and 1014. Here, cameras may still be needed toidentify locations of employees about the tables as well as to identifylocations of materials resting on the tables so that the UIs can bepresented in locations where they are visible to the employees.

Where emissive table tops are provided, more accurate sensing ofintended employee interaction is possible and thus more complex virtualinterfaces may be presented. To this end, see the exemplary second levelinterface 1304 shown in FIG. 72 and described in some detail hereafter.

In still other cases only portions of the table top surfaces may beemissive and touch sensitive for presenting UIs. For instance, eachtable top may be dimensioned to support two employees along each edgeand emissive panels or display screens may be flush mounted within thetable top surfaces adjacent each employee space. For example, 10 inch by12 inch emissive surfaces may be provided to the right of each employeelocation for presenting a virtual UI to the employee.

In other cases substantially the entire top surface of each table topmay be emissive or provide a projection surface for presenting controltools but only smaller areas of the top surfaces may be reserved forinputting commands or other input. For instance, see FIG. 73 where smalltouchpad input areas 1340 a, 1340 b, 1340 c and 1340 d are provided atlocations about the edge of table assembly 1012 that can operate asmouse or track pads for moving an icon about on surface 997 to selectdifferent virtual icons that comprise the UI output. Here, it iscontemplated that, at least initially, no virtual UIs may be provided asshown in FIG. 73 adjacent touchpad areas 1340 b and 1340 c.

Referring to FIG. 74, once an employee touches an adjacent touchpad 1340a, the virtual control tools may be projected or presented as shown at1350 to the employee along with a pointing and selection icon 1352 thatcan be moved about using the touchpad 1340 a to select the presented UIicons. In FIG. 74, selection icon 1352 is shown pointing at theagenda/file icon 1354. When icon 1354 is selected, an agenda/fileinterface 1360 may be presented as shown in FIG. 75. Again, touchpadarea 1340 a can be used to move selection icon 1352 around on interface1360 to select any of the presented icons to indicate status, accessfiles, page through commonly presented files, annotate, interact withapplication or browser content, etc. In at least some cases interface1360 includes a close icon 1353 selectable to close interface 1360(e.g., remove interface 1360 from top surface 997).

As shown in FIG. 75, when a laptop 857 a or other material is placed onthe top surface 997, the locations of the materials may be automaticallydetermined and a UI may be placed elsewhere on surface 997 to enable anemployee to clearly view the UI. The agenda/file UIs are described inmore detail hereafter.

Referring again to FIG. 63, a set of microphones (two labeled 1044) areprovided within halo assembly 1020 and comprise a smart microphone arraythat is linked to server 20. Server 20 processes signals from themicrophone array and can present warnings to help regulatecommunications in space 1010. For instance, in at least some cases,server 20 may be programmed to use captured employee voices in space1010 to recognize when two or more employees are speaking at the sametime and may present an indication within space 1010 when multipleemployees start to speak at the same time. The process of determiningwhen more than one employee is speaking at the same time may includetriangulating the locations of sounds in space 1010 via signals receivedby microphones 1044 and, when sounds at volume levels that exceed athreshold level emanate from more than one location about the tables1012 and 1014, determining that more than one employee is speaking atthe same time.

When more than one employee speaks at the same time various types ofindicators are contemplated. For example, one indicator may be providedby controlling one or more of the projectors 1033 to present a warning(e.g., the text phrase “Multiple Speakers”) on the top surfaces of tableassemblies 1012 and 1014. The warnings may be presented to all of theemployees in space 1010 or may be presented only to employees that speakat the same time. Where one employee is speaking and is interrupted by asecond employee, the warning may only be provided to the secondemployee. As another example, the light generated by halo assembly 1020may flicker to indicate that two or more employees speak at the sametime.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that an employee or multipleemployees may be able to turn off one or more microphones that resideabove their positions at the tables 1012 and 1014 so that themicrophones there above do not pick up a conversation at that position.This feature is particularly useful where two or more employees want tohave a quiet side bar discussion without interrupting others in thespace 1010 and without broadcasting the side bar discussion to remoteemployees. Here, when a first employee indicates a side bar discussion,instead of turning off microphones above the area associated with thefirst employee, server 20 may simply not pass the voices of employeespicked up in that area to remote employees and may not present warningmessages based on the side bar discussion. Here, triangulation of voicesin space 1010 using signals from all employees in space 1010 should beuseable to identify the employees speaking in the side bar area andthose voices should be able to be cancelled from the audio sent to theremote employees. While not shown, controls for turning the arraymicrophones on and off may be presented as part of a UI on the table topsurfaces (e.g., 997 in FIG. 67).

In at least some embodiments, consistent with the general idea ofenabling affordance benefits with little or no controlling action by anemployee, the team studio lighting, cameras, displays and opacitycontrollable wall panels may be automatically controlled by the systemserver 20 or by processors linked to actuation devices in the studioconfiguration where the processors are controlled by system server 20.An exemplary sequence of actuator and indicator controls that may occurprior to, during and after a meeting are contemplated. To this end, seeFIGS. 67 and 70 where an initial configuration state is shown prior tocommencement of a scheduled meeting in space 1010. As shown, initially,the opacity controllable panels 1050 and 1052 are clear and areilluminated yellow to indicate that a meeting is about to commence.Similarly, halo structure 1020 is illuminated yellow as are panelassemblies 1041 and 1043.

Once remote employees are linked to team studio 62, blurred images ofthe remote employees are presented on screens 1040 and 1042 to indicatethat the remote employees are ready to participate in the session.Again, as in the case of configuration 54 described above, both theremote employees and a local employee may have to opt into thetelepresence session to start a meeting.

At least initially no images are projected onto walls 1002, 1003, 1004,1005 or 1007 or in field 1025. In other cases, nature imagery or otherscenes may be projected onto walls 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005 or 1007 or inspace 1025 depending on employee or group preference. Within a shorttime prior to commencement of a scheduled meeting in space 1010, some orall of the yellow light may be visually modified to indicate an imminentstart to the meeting. For instance, at least the light viewed fromoutside space 1010 may be green to indicate that the meeting will startin the next 5 minutes.

Referring still to FIG. 70, as an employee enters space 1010, theemployee encounters screen 1045 which presents various types ofinformation related to the meeting about to start in space 1010. To thisend, the exemplary screen shot shown in FIG. 70 includes the name ofspace 1010 (e.g., “Team Studio 2”) and the current time at 1100 and 1102as well as a title of the scheduled meeting at 1008 and the date at1110. A meeting status indicator is shown at 1104 and time prior tocommencing or time remaining in an ongoing meeting period is presentedat 1106. In at least some embodiments the status indicator 1104 will belimited to a small number of statuses so that space users can easilycomprehend current status. For instance, in some cases the statusindicator 1104 may be limited to indicating “Starts In” (see FIG. 74),“Ready” (see FIG. 70), “In Use” (see FIG. 71) and “In Use—Ending Soon”(see FIG. 73) to indicate the start time of a next scheduled meeting forthe space 1010, that a meeting is ready to commence (e.g., that alltechnology is booted up and ready to use), that a meeting is progressingand that a meeting is ending soon, respectively.

Referring again to FIG. 70, a space schedule or schedule time line ispresented at 1112 that includes a graphical time line and indicates acurrent time at 1122 and meeting time bars aligned with different timesas indicated at 1118 and 1120. Bar 1118 corresponds to a next meeting tooccur in space 1010 that starts at 9:30 AM and ends at 10:30 AM and bar1120 corresponds to a flowing meeting that starts at 11 and ends atnoon. Thus, employees in space 1010 can readily see times when the space1010 is available and whether or not the current meeting will beconstrained by the next scheduled meeting for space 1010.

Referring still to FIG. 70, the screen shot of display 1045 alsoincludes an employee status legend 1114 that indicates the currentstatus of employees that are to attend the meeting. The employee statuslegend includes three lists of employees including a present list, anaway list and an absent list. The present list includes each employeethat is currently located in space 1010 and waiting for the meeting tostart. For instance, see field 1124 for Pete White in the present listand field 1130 in the absent list that indicated Mo Pink is absent fromthe meeting (e.g., is neither present in space 1010 or remotely linkedto space 1010). For each employee field in the employee legend 1114, acolor or graphical indicator is provided to indicate status as well. Forinstance, see the green (as indicated by left up to right crosshatching) color highlight at 1128 for Pete White's field which indicatesthat Pete is present in space 1010. See also the yellow highlight forthe field for Joe Brown which indicates that Joe has checked into space1010 for the meeting but has stepped out of space 1010 for some reason.The highlight for Mo Pink's field is red indicating absence. Inaddition, an estimated time required for Mo Pink to arrive at space 1010is presented at 1131 Other employee statuses are contemplated and may beindicated via different color highlighting or via other visuallydistinguishing features.

Referring still to FIG. 70, affordance status is indicated along thelower portion 1116 of the screen shot and includes icons for each of themajor affordances or systems associated with studio 62. The exemplaryicons include a content sharing icon 1132, a meeting file managementicon 1134, a telepresence icon 1136 and a telephone icon 1138, amongothers. The icons in space 1116 that are associated with affordancescurrently in use or activated are visually distinguished from others insome fashion. Thus, in FIG. 70, the file management icon 1134 is shownhighlighted green to indicate activation or use of the file managementtool. Initially, prior to commencement of the meeting, only the filemanagement icon is highlighted and other affordances are not activatedand therefore are not initially highlighted in space 1116.

Thus, referring again to FIGS. 67 and 70, initially, as employees arriveat space 1010, the green color light indicates that a meeting is aboutto commence and the blurred images on screens 1040 and 1042 indicatethat remote participants are ready to join the meeting. Screen 1045indicates who is present and attending via remote linkage to space 1010and who has yet to arrive as well as the schedule for space 1010 and thecurrent status of the meeting. As shown in FIG. 70, the status is“Ready” indicating that the meeting can start whenever both remote andlocal employees opt in to the telepresence session. In FIG. 70, themeeting has been delayed for a few minutes for some reason (e.g., wassupposed to begin at 9:30 AM).

Once the meeting commences, the status indicating light viewable outsidespace 1010 is changed to red. In addition, referring to FIG. 71, thecontent on screen 1045 is altered to show other information related tothe ongoing meeting. To this end, for instance, the meeting statusindicator is updated to indicate “In Use”. In addition, modified presentand away lists of employees are presented. The present list stillincludes all locally attending employees and the away list stillincludes all remotely attending employees. However, the local and remoteemployees are divided up into at least two groups including currentlyattending employees and employees that are not currently attending tothe meeting for some reason. For instance, see the two employees listedunder the “Away” heading, Paul Pink and George Gray. In the presentexample, Paul Pink is linked and currently attending remotely whileGeorge Gray is not currently attending (e.g., may have stepped out of aremote team studio or enhanced privacy space for a moment). Currentattendee Paul Pink is indicated via a green bar 1150 adjacent his tag orfield 1151 while George Gray's current status of not attending isindicated by yellow bar 1152 adjacent his tag 1153. A single green bar1148 appears next to each of the local attendee tags (e.g., 1146 in FIG.71) indicating a present and attending status.

While only two current statuses (e.g., attending and not attending) ofemployees participating in a meeting are indicated in the employeestatus lists in FIG. 71, in other cases additional statuses may bevisually distinguished via other color coding. For instance, an employeethat is attending a meeting and then departs a facility may be indicatedvia a gray bar, an employee that has stepped out for longer than athreshold period (e.g., 5 minutes) may be indicated via a blue bar, anemployee whose content is currently being shared in space 1010 may beindicated via a pink bar, etc.

Referring again to FIG. 71, the progressing meeting screen shot alsoincludes an agenda 1160 and a list of files 1168 that have been postedfor the current meeting. The agenda includes a list of agenda topics,typically arranged in an order in which the topics are to be addressedduring the meeting. Exemplary topic tags or fields are shown at 1162 and1163 that correspond to a “Design Status” topic and a “TechnicalArchitecture” topic, respectively. A status indicator (e.g., 1164, 1165)is presented for each topic in the agenda list that can be used toindicate a current agenda item being addressed in the meeting and thatmay also indicate topics that have already been addressed. To this end,indicator 1164 is colored gray to indicate that that topic has alreadybeen addressed in the meeting while indicator 1165 is colored green toindicate that that topic is currently being addressed.

File list 1168 includes a separate tag for each file or record that iscurrently queued up for consideration or to possibly be accessed duringthe meeting, exemplary file tags including 1165, 1170 and 1171. Again,the tags may list the files in an order in which, at least initially, itis intended the files be considered but, during a meeting, the files maybe considered out of order. In at least some cases file statusindicators may be provided for each of the file tags to indicate whetheror not those files have already been considered or are currently beingconsidered. To this end see that indicator 1172 is colored gray toindicate that the associated file or document has been considered whileindicator 1173 is colored green to indicate that the associated file iscurrently being considered. Also, see that a status indicator 1167 forthe budget tag 1165 is not colored which indicates that that file hasnot been considered during the meeting and thus that the files have beentaken out of the listed order.

The agenda status and file status information may be determined in anyof several different ways. For instance, microphones in space 1010 maypick up employee voices in space 1010 and perform speech recognition onthose voices and then content analysis on the words uttered in space1010 to determine a current agenda topics and other agenda topics thathave already been considered. When a new topic on the agenda list isidentified, the system server 20 can update the status indicators on theagenda list. In other cases where specific sub-periods of a scheduledmeeting are reserved for specific topics, the agenda indicators may beupdated purely as a function of time (e.g., each of 5 topics may beassociated with a different 12 minute sub-period of an hour longmeeting).

In some cases file status may be determined based on which files havebeen accessed and shared via a common display screen or field on anemissive surface in space 1010 during the meeting. Thus, the first timea file is accessed and shared, the file indicator (e.g., 1173 in FIG.71) may be altered to indicate a current consideration status (e.g.,indicator 1173 may be colored green). Once the commonly shared file isclosed, the status may be updated to already considered (e.g., indicator1173 may be colored gray). If a closed file is again opened and commonlyshared, the status indicator may again be changed to green to indicatecurrent consideration.

In still other cases an employee may indicate agenda status directly byindicating a switch from one topic to another in some fashion. Forinstance, see the exemplary UI 1300 in FIG. 72 that may be projected orpresented via an emissive and touch sensitive table top surface. Once ameeting starts, an employee may select an agenda/files icon 1302 that isprovided as part of the UI to open up an agenda/file interface 1304 ontable top surface 997. The agenda/file interface 1304 includes theagenda list 1308 and the file list 1310 for the meeting where each listincludes a selectable icon and status indicators. For instance,exemplary agenda list icons include icons 1312 and 1314, each of whichare selectable to indicate a current agenda item being considered in themeeting. Similarly, exemplary file list icons include icons 1316 and1318 that are selectable, in at least some embodiments, to share thosefiles via common display screens of fields (see 1200 a through 1200 d inFIG. 72). Agenda status and file status indicators are shown at 1320 and1322 and are color coded in the same fashion as the indicators on screen1045 described above.

Where a selected and shared file includes more than one page, arrowicons 1326 and 1328 may be presented as part of interface 1304 formoving forward and rearward in the presented content. In at least somecases where a shared file is not multi-page, the arrows may not bepresented. In some cases, where a file corresponds to an application ora web browser page where on screen tools can be selected to interactwith the application or browser page, a virtual touch pad 1330 may bepresented as part of the interface 1304 that can be used like a mouse ortrack pad to move an icon about on the shared content fields or screensto interact with the presented content. In still other cases a virtualtouch pad may be automatically presented that can be used to annotatecommonly presented content via user touch. In some cases a field 1324may be presented that can be used by an employee to access other contentfiles that have not been added to the meeting queue prior. Here, wherean employee touches field 1324, a virtual keyboard may be opened up forreceiving file search terms or a file address.

Referring yet again to FIG. 71, the affordance status information 1116is updated to reflect space resources currently in use or booted up foruse. For instance, see that icons 1132, 1134, 1136 and 1138 are eachcolored green to indicate current use.

Thus, during an on going meeting, screen 1045 presents information thatemployees can use to understand various aspects of the meeting and howthe meeting is progressing. For instance, an employee that arrives for ascheduled meeting 15 minutes late can view screen 1045 and quicklyassess who is attending the meeting remotely and locally and who hasstepped away for some reason, which agenda items have been considered,which agenda item is currently being considered, which files have beenconsidered and which files are currently being considered and whichresources or space affordances are being used or are ready to be used(e.g., are booted up and ready for use). Similarly, an employee in space1010 can refer to screen 1045 to recollect which employees are linkedremotely and if remote employees are currently attending or have steppedaway for some reason, which topics have been considered, which arecurrently being considered and which have yet to be considered as wellas which files have been, are currently and still need to be considered.

In addition to changing the content presented on screen 1045, otherspace 1010 affordances are automatically controlled to change the space1010 environment when a meeting commences and as the meeting progresses.To this end, see FIG. 76 which shows space 1010 affordances during thecourse of a meeting. As illustrated, when a meeting commences, glasspanels 1050 and 1052 and door 1054 are rendered opaque so that there isa visual barrier from outside space 1010 into the space 1010.

In addition, team imagery is presented as background on many of the wallsurfaces surrounding space 1010 that are not used to show telepresenceimages or share content. For instance, see the nature imagery on wallsubassemblies 1003, 1005 and 1007 as well as on walls 1002 and 1004 andwall section 1044 outside the shared content fields 1200 a through 1200d. The presented imagery can set a tone for a team and the meeting ingeneral. In at least some cases the presented imagery may reflect somecharacteristics associated with remotely linked employees. For instance,where a thunderstorm is occurring in the location occupied by one of theremote employees, the imagery presented may show a thunderstorm orstormy weather. In other cases the presented imagery in space 1010 maybe mirrored or reflected on one or more screens associated with thelocations of remote employees to increase the sense of shared space anda shared experience.

In addition, remote employee images on screens 1040 and 1042 areunblurred as are images of space 1010 presented to the remotely linkedemployees and the sound system which enables audio communication betweenremote employees and employees in space 1010 is activated. Light panels1041 and 1043 are controlled to generate white light which increases thequality of images generated by cameras 1047 and 1049. Similarly, lightin panels 1048 and 1046 may be controlled to generate red light forsignaling space 1010 status to employees outside that space. The lightgenerated by halo structure 1182 may be controlled to be white toprovide light focused on the top surfaces of the table assemblies 1012and 1014 and, again, to increase the quality of images generated bycameras 1047 and 1049. Imagery may also be projected onto the topsurface of the halo screen 1180 that is consistent with the backgroundor mood setting imagery presented on the wall subassemblies.

Referring still to FIG. 76, when an employee shares content in space1010 with other employees, the system server opens up one or more sharedcontent fields 1200 a through 1200 d and the shared content is presentedtherein. For instance, referring again to FIG. 72, if an employeeselects the “Key Experiences” document at 1316, that document would beopened in one or more of fields 1200 a through 1200 d in someembodiments and the employee could use icons 1326 through 1328 to flipthrough consecutive pages of that document. Where the same document ispresented on multiple wall surfaces, employees have the option to viewany of those surfaces and see the same content. Here, for instance, afirst employee on one side of table assembly 1012 may peer across thetable top and to a shared content field 1200 a behind a second employeeacross the table assembly while the second employee peers past the firstemployee at a different shared field 1200 d to see the same content.

As a meeting nears its scheduled end time, server 20 may be programmedto signal that the end time is approaching. To this end, see, forinstance, FIG. 77, where space status is updated to indicate “InUse—Ending Soon” when a meeting is within 5 minutes of the scheduled endtime. See also that a yellow colored field 1372 is placed about theindicator 1370 to clearly indicate that the status has changed and tocall employee's attention to the short remaining time. Moreover, seethat the halo structure 1182 is controlled to generate blue light whichindicates an approaching end of meeting time. Similarly, although notshown, panels 1046 and 1048 and perhaps others are controlled togenerate blue light and indicate to employees outside space 1010 thatthe meeting is ending. In some cases, as the end time gets even closer,one or more space affordances may be further controlled to indicate theimminent space status change.

Once a meeting in space 1010 has ended, the space 1010 affordances maybe controlled to indicate that a meeting in the space is wrapping up.For instance, see FIG. 78 where the space affordances are shown in yet adifferent controlled state where panels 1050 and 1052 and door 1054 aregenerally transparent and where panels 1041, 1043, 1046, 1048, 1050 anddoor 1054 as well as halo structure 1082 are controlled to generatewhite light to indicate an end of meeting transition. See also thatimages presented by screens 1040 and 1042 are blurred to indicate thataudio and visual communication with remote employees has been disabled.Speakers 999 may be controlled by server 20 to generate a transitionsound track. Team imagery is removed from the wall surfaces.

Referring also to FIG. 79, boot up screen 1045 is now controlled topresent the “Start In” status indicator (e.g., indicating that a nextmeeting will start in a short while) and a count down clock indicatingtime remaining prior to commencement of the next meeting scheduled forspace 1010. Screen 1045 also presents guidance information 1220 for eachof the local employees in space 1010 to help them transition to otherspaces. To this end, the guidance information includes a tag for eachemployee in space 1010 as well as a next location tag. For instance, seethe employee tags at 1212 and 1213 and the associated next location tagsat 1214 and 1215, respectively. See also that each next location tag iscolor coded to assign a different color to each of the employees inspace 1010 for guidance purposes. For instance, tag 1214 is showncolored pink as indicated by the vertical and horizontal cross hatching,tag 1215 is shown green as indicated by the left up to right crosshatching, etc. For at least some of the next locations, a count downclock (see 1216) is presented to let the employee associated therewithknow how much time she has to get to her next scheduled activity. Here,in at least some cases the server 20 will only indicate next scheduledactivities that are scheduled to occur within some threshold period(e.g., the next 30 minutes) and personal benches may be suggested toother employees.

Referring to FIG. 80, in some cases the boot up screen 1045 may includea map representation 1230 of at least the local space 12 a and may showcolor coded suggested paths (only one shown at 1232 in FIG. 80) for eachemployee in space 1010 to next configuration locations.

G. Other Embodiments

Many other embodiments of the disclosed systems and configurations arecontemplated. For instance, while relatively simple capacitive touchinterface devices are described above in each of the bench, focusstation and kiosk configurations, in other embodiments more complexinterface configurations are contemplated. For instance, each table topdescribed above as including a capacitive touch interface may, instead,include a completely emissive surface or display screen that is touchsensitive so that more complex interfaces can be provided. As anotherinstance, each table top described above as including a capacitive touchinterface that includes actual mechanical buttons or button specificsensors may be replaces by a touch pad for moving an icon about on adisplay screen provided as part of an associated station orconfiguration where interface options are provided on the screen andselectable via the touch pad. For instance, see FIG. 81 where anexemplary bench privacy screen 342 includes a display screen 382 where aUI icon set 1410 akin to the icons described above with respect to FIG.74 and other figures are presented on the display 382 along with apointer/selection icon 1404 useable to select any of the interfaceicons. Pointer icon 1404 is controllable via a touch pad 1400 mounted inthe upper surface of the bench worksurface 340. Here, in at least somecases, the icon set 1410 may not be presented until an employee contactsor waves her hand over pad 1400. The icon set at 1410 would only includea subset of the UI icons that is relevant to the configuration that theset is presented for. Thus, see in FIG. 81 that there is no telepresenceor camera control icon as a typical bench in this disclosure would notinclude such a camera. If a particular bench or if all benches in aspace include a camera, then a camera control or telepresence icon maybe provided. While not shown, where a touchpad like pad 1400 isprovided, much more complex virtual interface tools may be provided viascreen 382 and therefore much more functionality can be built into abench or other configuration type (e.g., a kiosk, a focus station,etc.). While not shown, a touch pad like the one shown in FIG. 81 may beincluded in either of the focus station or kiosk configurations toincrease functionality.

In still other cases, the touch pad in FIG. 81 may be replaced by asmall touch sensitive display screen or emissive surface on which aconfiguration UI may be presented. To this end see FIG. 82 that shows avirtual UI representation presented on a display screen 1420 at 1422.Again, the full UI including selectable icons may not be presentedinitially and, instead, may only be presented after an employee hastouched screen 1420 or otherwise indicates a desire for the UI to bepresented. In this case, the hand icon or representation 1424 may bepresented as an invitation to employees to access the full UI andcontrol configuration affordances.

Referring to FIG. 83, another exemplary bench assembly 1450 isillustrated that includes components that provide four separate butattached bench configurations 1452 a, 1452 b, 1452 c and 1452 d. Each ofthe bench configurations is similarly constructed and operates in asimilar fashion and therefore, in the interest of simplifying thisexplanation, only configuration 1452 a is described in any detail.Configuration 1452 a includes a leg structure 1454 that supports ahorizontal work surface 1456 at a seated height. A lateral dividingscreen assembly 1458 is provided to the left hand side of the bench worksurface 1456 to serve as a visual divide between bench 1452 a andadjacent bench 1452 c. Similarly, a screen assembly 1460 is providedbetween bench 1452 a and bench 1452 b which is directly across frombench 1452 a. Lateral dividing screens are provided at each of thebenches 1352 b, 1452 c and 1452 d.

Referring still to FIG. 83 and now also to FIG. 84, lateral screenassembly 1458 has several construction features that are similar to theconstruction features described above with respect to the other benchscreens. To this end, for instance, screen 1458 includes two small flatpanel displays 1462 and 1464 mounted to an internal frame structure (notshown) with a fabric sock or cover member over the display surface ofeach flat display so that features of the displays (e.g., bezels, etc.)are hidden thereby. Again, the fabric is selected so that light andimages generated by the displays are visible there through.

As seen in FIG. 84, first and second buttons 1482 and 1486 are providedin a top edge portion of screen assembly 1458 that can be selected by anemployee to indicate that the employee currently prefers a silentenvironment and does not want to be disturbed, respectively. Each buttonhas a light guide and LED (see 1484 and 1488) associated with it thatindicates the status of the selected button. For example, in someembodiments when a button is not selected, the LED may be off and, uponselecting the button, the LED may be controlled to generate red light.In other cases, each button may toggle between red and green indicatingselection and de-selection of each of each button and associatedfeature, respectively.

Referring still to FIGS. 83 and 84, an edge light device 1480 isprovided along at least the end edge of screen 1458. In some cases, asimilar edge light device may be provided in at least a portion of thetop edge of screen 1458 as shown at 1481. In at least some cases, theedge light devices 1480, 1481 are used to indicate current ownershipstatus of an associated bench (e.g., 1452 a). For instance, when anemployee temporarily owns a bench, associated light devices 1480 and1481 may be controlled to generate red light and when no employeecurrently owns a bench, the edge light devices may be illuminated green.

Referring still to FIGS. 83 and 84, screens 1462 and 1464 are providedto present useful space management messaging to employees. For instance,in at least some cases screens 1462 and 1464 may be used to provideindicators or warnings associated with buttons 1482 and 1486 as well asother information like a salutation upon arrival of an employee at bench1452 a, preferred widget output, etc. In some cases a microphone 1490may be mounted within screen assembly 1458 for sensing sound and drivinga silence reminder indicator when the sound volume exceeds somethreshold level.

Referring still to FIG. 83, an exemplary screen 1462 is illustratedwhich shows that, in at least some cases, screen 1462 may be dividedinto different messaging areas. Here, in at least some cases, server 20may only present specific information types in each of the differentmessaging areas so that employees can develop familiarity with thelayout of the messaging screen 1462 and the meaning of the informationpresented. The exemplary different types of messaging areas include atext messaging area 1501, a graphical silence preference messaging area1470, a schedule timeline area 1505 and a graphical glanceable messagingarea 1503. Text area 1501 is used to present short and informative textmessages to employees that cannot be presented efficiently oreffectively in some glanceable graphical way. For instance, the messagein FIG. 83 indicates “Free for 00:58” which indicates that an associatedbench is not scheduled for use for another 58 minutes and therefore isfree for use by any employee for the next 58 minutes.

Referring still to FIG. 83 and also to FIG. 91, messaging area 1470includes a graphical representation 1471 of the benches that compriseconfiguration 1450 including four bench icons 1514, 1516, 1518 and 1520that correspond to bench configurations 1452 a, 1452 b, 1452 c and 1452d, respectively. As in the case of the silence preference indicators(see 450 in FIG. 23) described above, the four icons that make uprepresentation 1471 are oriented to mirror the layout of associatedbenches so that employees can determine which bench occupants haverequested silence and which have not. In FIG. 91, each bench icon 1514,1516, 1518 and 1520 is colored green to indicate that no employee at therespective benches has indicated a preference for silence. When anemployee has indicated a preference for silence, an associated benchicon is colored red.

Referring yet again to FIG. 83 and also to FIG. 91, timeline area 1505includes a schedule timeline 1502 for an associated bench. The exemplarytimeline includes simple graphical representations of time slots whereavailable or free slots are indicated in green (see 1514) and scheduledor owned slots are indicated in red (see 1516). As time passes, pasttime is indicated in gray as shown at 1512. A current time is thereforelocated at 1519 (e.g., at the right end of the last gray slot).

Graphical glanceable messaging area 1503 is used to present messagesthat can easily and intuitively be expressed by glanceable graphicalrepresentations. For instance, see in FIG. 83 that temperature and soundindicators are presented at 1504 and 1506, respectively, and bar typescales for each are presented at 1508 and 1510, respectively. Here, anemployee can quickly view area 1503 and determine the relative ambienttemperature and relative noise level at the associated bench. As in thesystems descried above, temperature and noise level may be based on realtime sensed values, historical values for a bench and/or employeefeedback. As other instances, see the silence representation at 1540 inFIG. 96 which should be easily recognizable as a notice to reduce noiselevel, the stand up representation 1560 in FIG. 101 designed toencourage an employee to stand and stretch after a period of minimalmovement. Other graphical glanceable representations are contemplated.

Referring now to FIG. 85, another type of display that may be used topresent messaging to employees is an LED display screen 1457 that mayrelatively less expensive is some cases and therefore more suitable forat least some applications. The screen 1457 is a 32 by 64 LED matrixscreen where, in at least some embodiments, each LED is independentlycontrollable to generate different light colors (e.g., red, green,yellow, blue, white, etc.) and different brightness levels. Theexemplary screen in FIG. 85 shows an exemplary employee message at 1459,a silence preference indicator at 1461 and a bench schedule time line at1463. FIG. 86 shows an upper left corner of the LED screen 1459 where aportion of a text message is relatively easier to discern. FIG. 87 showsthe screen 1457 of FIG. 85 covered by a material layer 1455 to form adividing screen 1458 where the fabric used to construct the materiallayer passes light. As shown and consistent with the screen descriptionsabove, the light passes through the material while the dimensions andother aspects of the underlying screen are completely hidden. In atleast some cases the light appears to be, in effect, painted on theouter surface of the material in operation.

Referring to FIG. 88, in some cases a screen may include an upper edgelight device 1463 at a distal end of the upper edge that is viewable bypersons passing by the screen and associated bench. In some cases theupper edge light may include LEDs behind a lens or light pipe coverwhere an upper surface of the cover is flush with the upper edge of thescreen assembly 1458. In other cases, the lens or light pipe may have anupper surface that stands proud of the upper edge of the screen assembly1458 so that the light can better be seen from the sides of the screenassembly 1458.

FIG. 89 shows that screen 1458 may include a single selectable button1467 at a proximal end (e.g., the end over a work surface as opposed tothe end extending from the work surface) of the upper edge. Here, button1467 may be selectable for indicating a silence preference (e.g., asindicated by the silence preference indicator 1461 shown in FIG. 85).For instance, when button 1467 is selected, the quarter section ofindicator 1461 associated with the bench that is associated with screen1458 may be colored red to indicate a silence preference for the benchuser. Button 1467 may be surrounded by a light pine and an LED color maytoggle between red and green to indicate selection status of the buttonin some cases.

Referring to FIG. 90, in at least some embodiments graphicalrepresentations of temperature, sound level, etc., may be presented viascreen 1464 while other messaging is presented via screen 1462. Here, byonly presenting a limited and relatively small set of information onscreen 1462 and other information on screen 1464, it is believed thatemployee confusion may be avoided as employees will come to rely on thelocations of specific information relatively quickly and the messagingpresented will become completely glanceable over time. In FIG. 91, textmessaging is large and presented at 1501, the silence preferenceindicator is presented at 1471 and a bench schedule time line ispresented at 1505 while the temperature and sound level indicators arepresented at 1504 and 1506 by screen 1464.

Next, several examples of how screens 1462 and 1464 can be used toindicate different statuses of bench configuration 1452 a are described.A first status is when bench 1452 a is unreserved and unoccupied (e.g.,no employee is detected at the bench). Referring to FIG. 91, when bench1452 a is unreserved and unoccupied, text field 1501 may indicate thatthe bench is available and present the current time as shown at 1501. InFIG. 91, no employee at any of the benches 1452 a through 1452 d hasindicated a silence preference and therefore each of the bench icons inrepresentation 1470 is colored green. The timeline at 1505 is gray up tothe current time 1519 and then green to indicate availability during anext time period.

Edge light device 1480 (or the upper edge light device 1463 as shown inFIG. 88) is shown green indicating that bench 1452 a is available foruse by a walk up employee without a reservation. As described above,glanceable messages on screen 1464 include graphical temperature andsound level representations. Thus, an employee that is passing by bench1452 a can view screens 1462 and 1464 and quickly get a sense ofavailability, whether or not other employees using proximate benches1452 b through 1452 d have expressed a silence preference andinformation about the bench environment like temperature and noiselevel. Based on the information presented, the employee can decidewhether or not to use the bench in a relatively informed manner. In thepresent example it will be assumed that Jen Black walks up to anddecides to use bench 1452 a without a prior reservation to use thatbench.

Referring to FIG. 92, when Jen Black sits down at bench 1452 a without aprior reservation several things happen. First, the presented textmessage is changed to provide a count down clock (see 1531 in FIG. 92)to indicate the amount of time until bench 1452 a is reserved for use byanother employee. Second, the representations in the graphicalglanceable message area of screen 1464 are removed as Jen Black nolonger needs that information to make a decision regarding use of thebench 1452 a. Third, the color of edge light device 1480 is changed tored to indicate that bench 1452 a is no longer available for use byanother employee (e.g., Jen Black temporarily owns the bench 1452 a).

In the current example if, after walking up and taking unreservedownership of bench 1452 a, Jen Black gets up and leaves bench 1452 a, inat least some cases screen 1458 messaging and edge light 1480 signalingwill revert immediately back to the state illustrated in FIG. 91 to,again, indicate bench availability, ambient characteristics andexpressed silence preferences for bench 1452 a.

Next, assume that Jen scheduled a reservation to use bench 1452 a andthat the scheduled period of use is approaching. In this case, see FIG.93 where screen 1462 and edge light device 1480 are shown. In this case,text message 1521 is presented which indicates the scheduled owner ofbench 1452 a as well as provides a count down timer to indicate when JenBlack is to assume ownership of bench 1452 a. Edge light device 1480 isshown red to warn that bench 1452 a should not be used by any otheremployee as the bench is reserved for use in the near future.

Referring to FIG. 94, when Jen Black arrives at her reserved bench 1452a, salutation 1530 is presented in the text area and edge light device1480 remains red to indicate that bench 1452 a is currently owned.Referring to FIG. 95, if, while at bench 1452 a, Jen Black indicates asilence preference (e.g., selects button 1487 in FIG. 89), bench icon1514 that corresponds to bench 1452 a is colored red. Similar silencepreference indicators are provided at the other benches 1452 b through1452 d, albeit where the bench indicator that is shown red correspondsto the relative juxtaposition of bench 1452 a to the bench associatedwith the preference indicator. Referring to FIG. 96, if an employee atany one of the benches 1452 a through 1452 d generates sound thatexceeds a threshold level after at least one of the employees at thosebenches has indicated a silence preference, graphical glanceable silencerepresentation 1540 may be automatically provided at least until thesound level drops back down below the threshold level. In addition topresenting indicator 1540, the central portion of indicator 1471 at 1541is colored red to indicate a quiet reminder.

Referring to FIG. 97, if Jen Black leaves a bench that she previouslyreserved, a “Reserved” message 1546 may be presented in the text area ofscreen 1462 and edge light device 1480 remains red to indicate thatbench 1452 a is currently owned. Jen's name is also presented toindicate the employee that currently owns bench 1452 a. Referring toFIG. 98, if Jen Black is using bench 1452 a and has a meeting coming upon her schedule, a meeting warning 1547 may be presented along with acount down to the scheduled meeting time as shown. While not shown,meeting location may also be indicated or otherwise shown on a maprepresentation of an enterprise space that includes the meetinglocation.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that some bench configurationsin a space 12 a may be assigned more permanently to specific employees.In this case, instead of changing the ownership status of the benchbased on presence and reservations, light device 1480 may always be redto indicate ownership and the owning employee's name and otherinformation may routinely be presented via screen 1462 as shown in FIG.99 at 1550. In this case other signaling or messaging would still bepresented such as the silence preference indicator, meeting warnings,etc. The bench schedule timeline would not be presented in at least someembodiments for permanent or semi-permanent employees as thatinformation would not be required. While not shown in detail, othermessaging described above and hereafter may be presented to thepermanent or semi-permanent employee at the bench sans the scheduletimeline.

Other warnings are contemplated that are related to an employee'shealth. To this end, see for instance FIG. 100 where a graphical standup message is shown at 1560. Here, where server 20 recognizes that anemployee has been sitting for greater than a threshold period (e.g., 30minutes), server 20 may present graphic 1560 to encourage the employeeto stand up or stretch. The double graphic representation 1560 may beanimated where the sitting and standing representations are presentedsequentially and repeatedly. As another instance, see coffee graphic1570 presented in FIG. 101. In some cases a coffee or other graphicalmessage indicating that an employee should consider taking a break maybe presented after the employee has been located at a bench withoutleaving for some threshold period (e.g., 2 hours).

In at least some cases when an employee's reservation at a bench isabout to end (e.g., within 5 minutes), an indication of availability anda count down clock may be presented as shown at 1590 in FIG. 102. Othersignaling and messaging sequences are contemplated.

While different message sequences are described above in the context ofexemplary bench configurations, in at least some embodiments it iscontemplated that substantially similar or even identical and simplifiedmessaging may be presented in the same formats for other affordanceconfigurations including the exemplary focus stations, enhanced privacystations, amplification kiosks and team studios described above. Again,by presenting similar messaging and formatting, users of enterprisespaces can quickly develop a good glanceable understanding of themeanings of the simplified messaging.

In at least some of the bench embodiments described above silencepreference reminders are presented to bench users when noise or soundlevel exceeds some threshold level (see FIGS. 26 and 452 in FIG. 27).The embodiments described above generally contemplate a single soundthreshold level. In some cases it is contemplated that other thresholdlevels may be enabled. For instance, if an employee at a specific benchhas indicated a silence preference, it may be that a first noise levelthreshold is applied within a radius of 8 feet from the specific bench,a second louder noise level threshold is applied within a band betweenthe 8 foot radius and a 20 foot radius and a third noise level thresholdis applied within a band between 20 feet and 40 feet. See, for example,FIG. 103 where it is assumed an employee at bench 330 a requestedsilence and where first, second and third noise level thresholds are setto greater than 2 units, 5 units and 10 units, respectively (out of amaximum of 10 units), for first, second and third distance ranges (e.g.,bands) from bench 330 a. Here, if an employee at a bench within thegreater than 5 unit band is talking and generates sound at a 7 unitlevel, a quiet reminder signal (see again 452 in FIG. 27) may bepresented to that employee while the same sound level (e.g., 7 units) inthe greater than 10 unit band would not result in a silence reminder.

While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way ofexample in the drawings and have been described in detail herein.However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended tobe limited to the particular forms disclosed. For example, while systemsare described above as providing a separate color coded visual indicatorfor each employee being guided through a space, in cases where multipleemployees are being guided to the same space, the same color guidanceindicators may be assigned to each of the multiple employees. Forinstance, if 8 employees are being guided to team studio 2 for a meetingin 10 minutes, each of the 8 employees may be assigned the color blue toguide the employees to the target space.

In addition, server 20 may be programmed to automatically resetaffordance configuration resources to default states whenever theconfiguration is not owned by an employee. For instance, when a firstemployee using a first bench configuration leaves for the day, inaddition to indicating that the first bench is available for use byother employees, server 20 may automatically adjust bench work surfaceheight to a default 28 inches so that all benches that are not ownedhave the same appearance. Similarly, where task chairs include motors orother actuators so that chair features can be adjusted (e.g., seatheight, arm rest height, etc.) or so that the chair positions can bechanged (e.g., via one or more motorized casters), server 20 may beprogrammed to position all chairs at the same relative position toassociated benches or other configurations and to adjust all chairsettings to the same settings so that the overall space has a neat andclean appearance. For instance, in the exemplary team studio describedabove that includes eight chairs arranged about two table assemblies1012 and 1014, when a meeting ends and employees leave the space 1010,server 20 may control the chairs to park four chairs at each table, twoalong each lateral edge of each table so that the space 1010 has anorderly appearance between meetings.

As another example, while the reception screen is described above aspresenting queries to obtain feedback on space affordances fromemployees after use, in at least some cases it is contemplated that asystem server will seek feedback from employee's via portable computingdevices like a smart phone, tablet type device, etc. For instance, seeFIG. 104 where a request for affordance feedback akin to the requestdescribed above in FIG. 12 is illustrated, albeit where the request ispresented via a smart phone device.

In FIG. 104, in addition to including most of the information andfeedback tools described above with respect to FIG. 12, the requestincludes an image of the team studio at 1704 to help the queriedemployee correctly remember the space for which the employee isproviding feedback. The image 1704 may include a real image obtained inthe associated space during the actual meeting so that the employee'smemory is easily refreshed or the image may include a cartoon type imageof the space where employee images are shown on the image at thelocations that the employees assumed during the actual meeting. Thus,when an employee selects one of the spaces or affordance configurationsto assess, an image of that specific configuration may be presented. Inother cases a map of the space including an affordance to be reviewedmay be presented instead of the image 1714 where the configurationlocation is clearly shown on the map.

As yet one other example in at least some cases it is contemplated thatcontrols for a bench, an amplification table, or any other affordanceconfiguration that includes a work surface may be provided in the edgeof the work surface as opposed to in the top surface thereof. To thisend, see FIG. 105 where control buttons are shown built into an edge1730 of a bench assembly 330 z where the buttons are akin to the buttonsdescribed above with reference to FIG. 21. In other cases, lightsignaling devices for signaling different states of configurationownership, to signal preferences like silence, etc., may also be builtright in to the edges of the table top members. In some cases bothcontrol buttons and signaling light devices may be built into table topedges.

As one other example, at least some systems described above contemplatepresenting imagery on a café configuration wall or display field that isindicative of the energy or some other characteristic in a larger spacerelated thereto to give employees in the café configuration area a senseof the energy level or other characteristic in the larger space. Inother embodiments it is contemplated that a similar type of imagery maybe automatically generated on other display surfaces in other affordanceconfigurations for other employees to see. For instance, see theexemplary focus station shown in FIG. 34 that includes several differentdisplay fields on a screen assembly as well as other indicatorcapabilities (e.g., projection on a ceiling, light shining off anambient floor surface, etc. Here, where an employee is using the station56, sensors within the station 56 may sense various aspects of how theuser is working and those aspects may be presented visually via one ormore of the display fields illustrated, via projection on a ceiling orfloor surface, etc., for employees in the area that can see station 56.For example, in at least some embodiments sensors in the lounge seatassembly 508 may sense biological parameters of a user (e.g., heartrate, temperature, etc.) and a system server may use those values todetermine if the employee is in a “flow” state or not. Here, the term“flow” means a state of good focus as opposed to a state where theemployee may be having difficulty focusing on content development. Wherea user is in a state of flow, imagery on outside surfaces of the screenassembly may be selected to indicate a serene condition or some othercharacteristics that can be associated with a flow condition. In othercases a do not disturb indicator as at 579 in FIG. 35 may be presentedautomatically once flow is achieved so that the employee can have theadvantage of letting others know that she is in a flow state and shouldnot be disturbed. Flow or other automatically sensed circumstances maybe presented on surfaces associated with the other configurations.

In at least some embodiments indicating follow or other circumstancesautomatically is particularly important in open space configurationslike the focus station, the amplification station and the benchconfigurations as the automatic indication can advantageously affect howother employees in a general area act and hence the instantaneousenvironment associated with any one of those configurations.

In some embodiments described above, when differently located first andsecond employees that have a scheduled meeting approach or are proximatetwo affordance configurations that are capable of supporting atelepresence session, a system server may automatically initiate atelepresence communication link between the two configurations and offerthe telepresence functionality to the two employees. In other cases, itis contemplated that, prior to automatically initiating the link for atelepresence session, a system server may access a schedule database anddetermine if one or both of the first and second employees is alreadyscheduled to own a different telepresence capable affordanceconfiguration at or substantially at the scheduled meeting time. Here,if one of the employees is scheduled to own a telepresence capableconfiguration, in at least some cases, the server would initiate thetelepresence link between the owned configuration (or both ownedconfigurations) and some other configuration as opposed to between amost proximate configuration. This is especially true in cases whereother employees are scheduled to attend the session at the same locationas one of the first and second employees.

In other cases, where a first employee is scheduled to temporarily own atelepresence capable configuration for a specific meeting, if the firstemployee is proximate some other available telepresence capableconfiguration, the system may automatically initiate a session link andoffer an opt in option to the first employee. Here, where the firstemployee accepts the opt in option, the server would automaticallyrelease the previously scheduled configuration for use by others. Thus,the first user could simply use the proximate configuration and wouldnot have to do anything to release the previously scheduledconfiguration.

In still other cases where a first employee has a meeting scheduled witha remote second employee, it is contemplated that the first employee maybe able to simply walk up to an unscheduled and unowned telepresencecapable configuration (e.g., an amplification kiosk, an enhanced privacystation, a team studio) and select a telepresence initiation icon (e.g.,see 862 in FIG. 58) to initiate a session with selection of a singlebutton. Here, in some cases when button 862 is selected, a system servermay determine the identity of the employee that selected the button(e.g., via the location tracking system described above or in some otherway), access the employee's schedule to determine if the employee isscheduled to communicate with any remote employees and if so, mayautomatically attempt to locate a telepresence capable configurationproximate the remote employee and initiate a telepresence communicationlink with the remote employee. In still other cases once a scheduledcommunication with a remote employee is identified in the firstemployee's schedule, the first employee may be queried if she wants toattempt to set up a telepresence link with the remote employee and thelink may only be initiated after the first employee indicates that thelink should be attempted.

In at least some embodiments a video phone or tablet communication maybe transferred from a portable personal communication device to aproximate relatively large (e.g., larger than a typical portable device)display screen and linked to a camera, speakers and a microphoneassociated with that large screen so that a portable device based videocall can be enhanced. Here, when a video call is received on a portablesmart phone device by a first user using a personal bench assembly asdescribed above, for example, a system server may recognize the call asa video call, may search for an unowned telepresence capableconfiguration and may suggest the configuration to the first user via abench messaging screen or the like. Here, the first user may accept thesuggestion and then travel to the suggested configuration. Upon arrivingat the configuration, the smart phone may automatically link to thetelepresence capable configuration and start broadcasting the video callvoice and video to the configuration to be shared in an amplifiedmanner. Here, voice picked up via the configuration microphones would beprovided to the portable phone device and routed to the remotely linkedemployee. This automatic linking of a portable device video call to alocal telepresence system may be performed on both ends of a call.

In a similar fashion where a portable phone device is used tocommunicate via only voice to a remote employee, if the remote employeehas access to a telepresence system or telepresence capability, thevoice call may be turned into a telepresence session at a proximatetelepresence capable configuration. For instance, assume that a firstlocal employee and a second remote employee are participating in a voicecall via portable smart phones. Here, a system server may be able todetect the voice call, identify a first local telepresence capableconfiguration and a second remote telepresence capable confirmation thatare proximate the first and second employees and may automaticallysuggest to the employees that the employees move to the proximatestations to participate in a full telepresence session. Here, if one ofthe employees indicates a desire to participate in a full telepresencesession, the server may notify the other employee causing the otheremployee to confirm a desire to participate. Where both employees agreeto participate, guidance systems at each location may automaticallyguide the employees to their assigned or owned configurations. Whiletravelling to their assigned configurations, the server mayautomatically initiate the telepresence communication link. Once one ofthe employees arrives at an assigned station and the server recognizesthe specific employee that arrived as one to participate in a sessionassociated with the established link, the system may present an opt inoption for that employee. At the other end of the link, once the secondemployee arrives, if the first employee opted into the session already,the server may present the fuzzy image of the other employee along withan opt in tool.

In still other cases where a call is transferred from a portable phoneor other device to a telepresence system, the telepresence system itselfmay carry voice and video instead of using the phone link so that thephone is completely removed from the communication circuit.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that when an employee leaves atelepresence session prior to the session being completed, the employeemay be given the option to patch in her portable phone or other devicethat is capable of video conferencing so that the employee can continueher session. Here, for instance, if a scheduled telepresence session iscoming to an end, the system may query if the employee would like totransfer the session to her phone.

In some embodiments other configuration customization may also beautomated. For instance, it has been recognized that when a firstemployee accesses a file, an image, a document or other content to sharewith a second employee, a large percentage of time the first employeewill be accesses one of the documents that the first employee mostrecently accessed (e.g., the 50 documents the first employee mostrecently accessed). Another large percentage of the time where first andsecond employees share content in a collaborative fashion, the contentshared includes a prior document that was shared between the two or adocument that is related to a common project (e.g., a project that thefirst and second employees are working on or worked on together).

In at least some cases, to render documents easily accessible to anemployee at an amplification kiosk or at other affordance configurationswhere content can be amplified and shared, a system server mayautomatically identify N (e.g., 50, 100, etc.) most recently accessed oredited documents by a first employee, automatically cache thosedocuments at a local database associated with an amplification kioskowned by the first employee and may provide an on screen recent documentqueue for the employee to access those documents quickly. In at leastsome cases the caching will occur prior to an owning employee arrivingat a kiosk while in other cases the caching will be performedimmediately after the employee arrives at the kiosk. In still othercases the documents will not be cached and instead will simply beaccessible via selection of associated icons in the content queue.

In other cases, when a meeting is scheduled between first and secondemployees and at least one of the employees is using an amplificationstation for the meeting, a content queue may be presented that includesthe N most recently accessed or edited documents by the first employeeas well as documents associated with common projects. In some cases thedocuments associated with common projects may include both firstemployee and second employee documents as well as documents associatedwith the project that were generated by a third or other employees. Insome cases the queue will include most recent versions of documentsregardless of who most recently edited those documents. In some casesthe queue may include the N most recent documents accessed or edited byany of the first or second employees. In some cases where the secondemployee is remote, different queues of the most recent N document maybe presented, the first employee receiving a queue including his mostrecent N document and the second employee receiving a different queueincluding her most recent N documents. In some cases where a queueincludes most recent documents as well as common project documents, therecent and common documents may be separated into different queuesections so that they are easy to distinguish.

U.S. provisional patent application No. 62/008,283 which was filed onJun. 5, 2014 and which is titled “Environment Optimization For SpaceBased On Presence And Activities” describes some space affordanceconfigurations that are similar to some of the configurations describedabove and which may be swapped in for some of the above describedconfigurations and is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

US patent application No. 2014/040805 which was filed on Jun. 4, 2014and which is titled “Sound Detection And Alert System For Workspace”describes at least some sound detection and warning systems and isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/159,589 which was filed on Jan. 21,2014 and which is titled “Emissive Shapes And Control Systems” describesat least some automated interface devices that are presented as afunction of user preferences and is incorporated herein in its entiretyby reference.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 62/171,340 which was field on Jun. 5,2015 and which is titled “Threshold Configuration And System For Space”describes some emissive surfaces that automatically present spacemanagement content to a proximate user and is incorporated herein in itsentirety by reference.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/871,097 which was filed on Sep. 30,2015 and which is titled “Method And System For Locating Resources AndCommunicating Within An Enterprise” describes affordance sensor systemsand ways for identifying locations or resources and employees or personswithin an enterprise or multiple enterprise spaces and is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

Supplemental Concepts

Sensors 22 (see again FIG. 1) are described above for sensing andtracking employee locations within enterprise space. In particularlyadvantageous cases the employee location tracking system may includetransmitting beacon devices (hereinafter “beacons”) spaced throughout anenterprise space that transmit signals to devices carried by employeeswhere the received signals can then be used to determine employeelocations within enterprise space. For instance, referring to FIG. 106,in at least some cases, beacons 1800 may be positioned within anenterprise space 1802 at various known locations and each beacon mayperiodically transmit (e.g., every few seconds or fractions of a second)a wireless signal (e.g., Bluetooth, IR, RF, etc.) having a specific andknown signal strength and that identifies the specific beacon (e.g.,includes beacon identifying information such as a unique beaconidentification number or code). To this end, each beacon includes aprocessor, a memory for storing beacon identifying information and sometype of wireless transmitter (e.g., RF, UV, or some other type oftransmitting device). In addition, each beacon includes some type ofpower device such as a replaceable battery or an energy receiving RF orother type of coil so that the beacon can receive energy from aproximate portable user device or an RF energy source device locatedwithin the general area of the beacon within an enterprise space.

An employee's portable device 1804 may include a transceiver (e.g., atransmitter and receiver device or combination of devices), a processorand a power source (e.g., a battery). In at least some cases device 1804may include a smart phone type device, a laptop computer, a tablet typecomputing device, a watch, ring or badge device or some other type ofuser wearable device.

Device 1804 may run a software application causing the device 1804 toreceive identifying signals from the beacons 1800 located proximate thedevice 1804. Here, the signal strength and beacon identifyinginformation from at least a subset of the beacons 1800 may be collectedand transmitted via one or more access points 1806 proximate the user'sdevice 1804 to a system server (not illustrated in FIG. 106). In atleast some cases the server will be programmed to use the beaconidentifying information and signal strength information along with knownlocation information of each beacon to triangulate or otherwisedetermine the location of the user device 1804 in any of several knownways.

While a user's device 1804 may receive signals from a large number ofenterprise beacons, in at least some cases the application run by theuser's device may limit the number of beacon signals collected andtransmitted to the system server. For instance, in some cases theapplication may be able to identify the strongest 20 beacon signalsreceived and may only process those twenty beacon signals fortransmission to the server. Here, as device 1804 is moved within theenterprise space, the subset of 20 strongest beacon signals woulddynamically change.

In other cases, device 1804 may identify the strongest beacon signalreceived and base the sub-set of other signals to process on proximityof the other beacons to the beacon that transmitted the strongest beaconsignal. Here, the beacon sub-set selection process may be based on theassumption that a user's device and hence the user of that device isclosest to the location of the beacon that transmitted the strongestbeacon signal and that the other most useful beacon signals fordetermining user device location are the signals from the beacon subsetclosest to the beacon that generated the strongest sensed signal. Forinstance, where a first beacon transmitted the strongest sensed signal,device 1804 may select the 9 signals received from nine other beaconsknown to be closest to the first beacon to be used along with thestrongest signal to calculate user device and hence user location.

In the above example, the system server may determine the strongestbeacon signal and then provide a list of the other 9 beacon signals(e.g., from beacons closest to the beacon that generated the strongestsignal) that should be identified by the user device 1804 and forwardedon to the server for determining device location. In other cases, theapplication run on the user device may store the beacon map or somesurrogate therefore (e.g., for each system beacon, a list of the 9closest other beacons) so that the user device itself can identify thesub-set of 10 beacon signals based on the strongest received signal tobe obtained and forwarded on to the server for processing.

In still other cases, the user device may be programmed to receive andtransmit beacon signal strength and identifying information to theserver for any received signal having a signal strength greater thansome threshold level and the server may be programmed to use only asubset of the received signals to determine user device location. Forinstance, a user's device 1804 may receive 30 beacon signals having asignal strength greater than a threshold value and may transmit strengthand identifying information for each of those signals to the server.Here, the server may be programmed to identify the beacon locationassociated with the strongest received signal and the locations of 9other beacons closest to the identified beacon location and may then usethose 10 signal strengths to calculate user device location. In thiscase, as a user's device is moved about within an enterprise space, theserver would routinely update the sub-set of signals used, based onsignal strength, to calculate user device location.

In at least some cases beacons 1800 may be distributed differentlythroughout a space so that there are different densities of the beaconsin different sections of the enterprise space. To this end, in manycases the specificity of user location within an overall enterprisespace required to drive system processes and functions may only need tobe precise at some locations and less precise at others. For example, onone hand, where a specific sub-space within an enterprise is designed asa travel corridor for user travel so that users typically move throughthe sub-space rather quickly, system functions may not be tied to wherea user is located within the corridor sub-space and therefore, it may bethat presence in a general area, as opposed to specific location, withinthe sub-space is all that must be identified to support systemfunctions. On the other hand, in a multiuse conference room, relativelyprecise user locations may be important for driving any of severaldifferent system functions and methods. In this case, precise userlocations may have to be ascertained substantially in real time. In thisexample, beacons may be provided in greater density in or proximate themultiuse conference room than in the sub-space that is used as a travelcorridor. Multiple (e.g., 3, 4, 5, etc.) gradations in beacon densityare contemplated.

Referring again to FIG. 106, each of the circular, rectangular and fivesided devices in space 1802 represents a beacon where the circularsubset of beacons are arranged in a denser pattern than the five sidedbeacons and where the five sided beacons are arranged in a denserpattern than the rectangular beacons. More specifically, the circularbeacons are arranged in three high density arrays labelled 1810, 1812and 1814 that are spaced apart within the enterprise space 1802 whilethe five sided beacons are arranged in an intermediately dense arraythat covers most of the space 1802. The rectangular beacons are sparselyarranged as shown.

In at least some cases beacons from different density groups may overlapeach other while in other cases the different groups may not overlap. Tothis end, see in FIG. 106 that the intermediate density grouprepresented by the five sided icons overlaps each of the high densitygroups 1810 and 1812 but does not overlap the high density beacon grouplabelled 1814. Similarly, the low density rectangular beacons are shownto overlap groups 1810 and 1812 but to be separate from group 1814.

Referring still to FIG. 106, beacon signal strength may, in at leastsome embodiments, be different for beacons in the different densitygroups. For instance, each of the beacons in high density group 1810 maygenerate a signal having a strength that can generally or typically besensed anywhere within 15 feet of the beacon while each of the lowdensity beacons (e.g., the rectangular beacons) may generate a signalhaving a strength such that the signal can be sensed within 100 feet ofthe beacon.

Referring again to FIG. 106, while the beacons in the high andintermediate density groups are shown arranged in substantially uniformarrays, in at least some cases, as represented by the low densityrectangular beacons, the beacon pattern within a space may not beuniform and instead may be arranged in some other fashion to meet sometype of optimization objective. For instance, in at least some casesspace fixtures (e.g., walls, windows, doors, desks, tables, bookshelves,etc.) may prohibit placement of beacons at specific locations and mayalso attenuate or block beacon signals so that addition of more beaconsor rearrangement of beacons is required in those areas to increase theeffectiveness of the location determination process.

In at least some cases location determination may include using signalsfrom beacons in different density groups. For instance, a low densitybeacon signal may be used to generally identify the location of a user'sdevice 1804 and then signals from beacons in a higher density group inthe identified general area may be used to calculate a more precise userdevice location.

In cases where low density beacon signals can be used to clearlyestablish that a user device is in a location where precise location isnot required (e.g., in a travel corridor), the system may automaticallyforego attempting to calculate the precise location of the user'sdevice. This type of location determining triage process is particularlyadvantageous in cases where the beacons can be controlled to reducesignal the number of transmissions when precise device locations are notneeded. To this end, in particularly advantageous cases each of thebeacons may be battery powered and therefore, each beacon signaltransmission may cause an associated battery to discharge somewhat,Here, by reducing the number of signals transmitted, battery life may beappreciably extended.

In at least some cases, each beacon may include a receiver or at leastan excitation coil for receiving a signal from a user's device 1804 whenthe user's device is in proximity of the beacon. Here, when a user'sdevice signal is received, the beacon may transmit the beacon signal tothe user's device which can then be used as described above to calculateuser device location. Again, where a user's location is alreadysufficiently known from low density beacon signals, signals from higherdensity beacons may be foregone.

In some cases, where beacons include receivers and where the location ofa user's device 1804 can be generally established using low densitybeacon signals, a user's device 1804 may be programmed to transmitexcitation signals to specific subsets of high density beacons in thegeneral area of the user's device so that only a sub-set of beacons in auser's area transmit signals useable for more precise user devicelocation calculation. Thus, for instance, referring again to FIG. 106,where signals from the intermediate density beacons (e.g., the fivesided beacons in FIG. 106) can be used to identify that a user's deviceis in the sub-space labeled 1818, the user's portable device 1804 may beprovided with a list of high density beacons including the beacons insub-space 1820 so that the device 1804 can transmit to the beacons inspace 1820 causing each of those beacons to transmit an identity signalto be received by device 1804. In the alternative, a wireless accesspoint 1806 may transmit signals to each of the beacons in the sub-set inspace 1820 causing those devices to transmit signals that can beobtained by device 1804 to be used in the location determining process.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/871,097 which was filed on Sep. 30,2015 which is titled “Method And System For Locating Resources AndCommunicating Within An Enterprise” is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety and teaches employee or person tracking enterprisesystems that track and report employee locations as employees move aboutenterprise space. In the '097 application, the tracking system generallyreports employee locations on personal portable computing devices liketablet type computing devices, phone devices, etc., where a user mayaccess various person or employee tracking views that may be ofinterest. For instance, a first user may be able to see the closest Xemployees to the first user's location, locations of specific otherusers like users on a “favorites” list, users on a specific team, etc.Any of the user tracking information described in the '097 applicationmay be reported to or rendered accessible to an employee in any of thesettings or affordance configurations described above, either via apersonal portable computing device or via one of the stationary displaydevices provided in the configurations described.

In addition, the '097 application describes, with reference to FIG. 44of that application, a system whereby a first employee can set locationtracking preferences for the employee that can enable or restrictlocation tracking capabilities of other employees attempting to track oridentify the location of the first employee. For instance, in some casesa first employee may decide to allow all other enterprise employees totrack her precise location within enterprise space, a second employeemay prefer to only allow other employee's on a specific project team oremployees on a “friends” list to track her precise location while otheremployees can only track her general location (e.g., which building on acampus the second employee is currently located in), and a thirdemployee may want to restrict all other employees to only seeing thethird employee's general location. The '097 application describes userinterfaces that allow a user to restrict location reporting to differentemployees in any of the above ways and is incorporated herein for thoseteachings which may be combined with any of the other systems orprocesses described in this specification.

In addition, in the present case, a user may specify other locationdefining restrictions. For instance, a user may place a time periodrestriction on location tracking such as, only indicating precise userlocation between 9 AM and noon and between 1 PM and 3:30 PM on Mondaythrough Thursday and no location tracking at other times. As anotherinstance, a user may specify that when the user is in a personal harborlike the one described above with respect to FIGS. 34 through 41 of thisapplication, only general user location is reported to other employees.Here, the idea may be that when in a personal harbor, a user is likelyfocusing on individual work activities and may not want other employeesto be able to find her precise location in space. In other cases thesystem may automatically change the reported location precision for allemployees based on the type of affordance configuration the user iscurrently spatially associated with. In some cases it is contemplatedthat employees may be able to seek authorization from other employees totrack or change the precision with which they track the other employees'locations.

In still other cases, a first employee may be able to specify whether ornot other employees or different sets of other employees can accessother information about the first employee's location. For instance, inaddition to setting a location precision reporting factor, the firstemployee may be able to specify a preference for others to identifyother employees that are collocated or proximate the first employee.Thus, where the first employee is meeting with a human resourcesattorney for some reason the first employee may not want other employeesto know about the meeting and therefore may restrict access toco-located employee information. Here, while another employee may beable to identify precise location of the first employee, the otheremployee may only be able to ascertain that the human resources attorneyis generally within a specific building on an enterprise campus withoutplacing the attorney near the first employee.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that an enterprise employeemay be able to view a list of other employees that are scheduled to meetsome specific location based criteria in the future that is specified bya first employee. For instance, a first employee may only be collocateda few times a year with other employees that are on a “favorites” listmaintained by the first employee and, whenever scheduled to becollocated, the first employee may want notice of that possibility priorto the scheduled collocated time so that the employees can determine ifthe employee wants to schedule a face to face meeting. Here, forinstance, the first employee may select a system setting whereby asystem server routinely examines scheduled employee activities weeks inadvance and, where the first employee and any employee on the firstemployee's favorites list are scheduled to be collocated (e.g., in thesame general location (e.g., the same building, the same campus, thesame city, etc.)), may provide a notice via text, an e-mail or someother electronic function indicating the scheduled collocation event.Here, the first employee may then, if desired, attempt to schedule aface to face meeting.

In other cases, in addition to identifying a collocation event, thesystem may be programmed to only provide notice of the collocation eventwhen both the first employee and another collocated employee have atleast some overlapping “free” time on their schedules, when there is aconvenient available meeting space that can be reserved for a meeting,etc.

In at least some cases a system server may be programmed to trackcollocation events and suggest face to face meetings whenever two ormore employees have scheduled a meeting or conference at a differenttemporally proximate time. Thus, for instance, where first and secondemployees have already scheduled a teleconference for 11 AM on aspecific day and the system subsequently recognizes that the first andsecond employees are going to be collocated within 24 hours of thescheduled teleconference, the system may automatically transmit a noticeto one or each of the first and second employees suggesting a face toface meeting at some time that is temporally proximate the scheduledconference. Again, here, the system may automatically identify anavailable conference space and suggest that space for the meeting toexpedite a change in employee and other resource schedules.

A halo ceiling structure is described above with respect to FIGS. 63, 64and 67 through 69. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 62/205,392 which wasfiled on Aug. 14, 2015 and which is titled “Affordance Template SystemAnd Method” and which is incorporated in its entirety herein byreference describes another ceiling mounted affordance assembly or Halostructure in FIGS. 70 through 72. Any of the features described in the'392 application or above with respect to the halo assembly may becombined in this case. In addition, other useful features may also beprovided by an enhanced halo assembly.

For instance, in at least some cases one or more light sensors may beprovided within a space associated with a halo assembly and lightgenerated by the halo assembly may be automatically adjusted based onthe sensed light intensity, temperature, or other light characteristics,to optimize light within the space. For instance, where a space includesseveral windows so that the amount and characteristics of natural lightchange during a typical day period based on time, outside weatherpatterns, etc., halo light may be adjusted in real time to maintain someoptimal light characteristics within the space.

In at least some cases the light sensors may be located within the haloassembly itself. To this end, see again FIG. 69 in this application thatshows exemplary light intensity sensors at 1830. In some cases thesensors 1830 may sense light at the locations of those sensors. In othercases the sensors 1830 may be programmed to detect image attributes ofsome affordance component there below and, based on those imagecharacteristics, to assess instantaneous light characteristics of thespace below the sensor. For instance, here, the top surface of aconference table may have a specific image characteristic or signature(e.g., color, brightness, pattern, etc.) when light in a space isoptimized and therefore, by imaging the top surface below sensor 1830and comparing the top surface characteristics to the optimizedcharacteristics, a system server can be programmed to determine howlight in the space deviates from optimal and may then adjust lightgenerated by the light sources 1075 accordingly to minimize or eliminateany deviations. Here, the server may be programmed to recognize thetable top surface and distinguish that surface from other surfaces(e.g., a book or laptop computer placed on the table top within the FOVof the sensor device 1830) so that other materials on the table topsurface do not affect the light characteristic determination. Forinstance, there may be some threshold range of a specific table topcharacteristic given the known light intensity generated by lightdevices 1075 and any characteristic outside that range may be used todetect that the surface detected is other than the table top surface.

In other cases light sensors may be built into a table top structure orinto some other space affordances below the halo structure to senselight characteristics at those locations. To this end, see the exemplarysensors built into the table tops shown at 1840 in FIG. 64. As shown,the sensors may include multiple sensors equi-spaced about thecircumference of each table top so that there is at least some sensorredundancy so that if an employee places a laptop, book, or other opaqueitem on top of one of the sensors or adjacent thereto so as to cast ashadow over the sensor device, signals from other proximate andunobstructed or unshadowed light sensors may be used to ensureunobstructed sensing of light characteristics at different locationsabout the table top surface and generally within the space.

In at least some cases a system server may be programmed to recognizerapid or relatively fast changes in light characteristics and to usethat information to recognize that specific sensors have been obstructedor shadowed by items so that the signals from those sensors can beignored. For instance, if light intensity decreases by 50%instantaneously, the server may be programmed to recognize that thesensor device has likely been shadowed by some item on the table top andthe signal from that device may be ignored. In some cases one or morehalo cameras or other cameras in a space that includes the halostructure that are directed at the top surfaces of the table tops maydetect the table top sensors and may be able to determine when itemscover the sensors or shadow different table top light sensors and asystem server can, again, ignore signals from sensors that are somehowobstructed by items on a table top surface.

In some cases halo light may be controlled uniformly for all lightdevices located within the halo assembly (e.g., intensity may beuniformly controlled). In other cases where light sensors are capable ofsensing light characteristics at specific locations within a conferenceor other space associated with a halo assembly, the halo light devicesmay be controlled differently at different sections of the halo to causedifferent lighting effects. For instance, in cases where an exteriorwindow is proximate the distal edge of table top 1014 in FIG. 64 andnatural light enters the space 1010 through the window, artificial halolight above table top 1014 may be controlled to have an intensity thatis substantially less than the intensity of the halo light producedabove table top 1012. In at least some embodiments halo light may becontrolled differently in many different sections of the halo assemblybased on sensed light in the space.

In still other cases halo light may also be controlled as a function ofactivities being performed within an associated space to optimize forparticular activities. For instance, where a first employee within aspace below a halo assembly is currently being videotaped by a camerafor teleconferencing, it may be optimal for the first employee to beilluminated differently than other employees in the space to optimizefor video capture. In at least some cases, a system server may trackwhich employee is or employees are being imaged at any time and mayadjust halo lighting to affect optical image capture, while providingother optimized lighting effects for other purposes for other employeesin the space. Similarly, where first, second and third employees out ofeight employees arranged about the table tops in FIG. 64 are each imagedfor remote telepresence viewing at the same time, different halosections may be illuminated differently to optimize for imaging allthree of the first, second and third employees.

In some cases it may be that two separate sections of a halo assemblyare specially illuminated to optimize for image capture of a singleimaged employee. To this end, for instance, referring again to FIG. 64,the section of a halo assembly immediately above an employee's locationat a table edge as well as the halo section immediately across from theemployee's location may be specially illuminated for image capture.Other special halo effects are contemplated.

In cases where two or more employees that are collocated in a conferencespace are viewed simultaneously by one or more remote conferees, in atleast some cases it is contemplated that the halo assembly or otherlight generating devices in the local conference space may be controlledto generate the same light effect behind each of the locally imagedconferees so that the remote conferees have a visual queue and sensethat the local conferees are collocated. For instance, the halo andother light device may cause an orange colored light behind each locallyimaged conferee so that when remotely viewed, the remote conferees havea sense that the local conferees are at the same location.

Where a second set of conferees are collocated at a second locationduring a teleconference, the system may distinguish the conferees at thesecond location by controlling a halo or other light devices at thesecond location to present a different color (e.g., green) lightingeffect behind each of the conferees at the second location. Here, forinstance, where three conferees at a first location and three at asecond location are being imaged and simultaneously presented to aseventh conferee at a third location, the seventh conferee would seeorange and green lighted backgrounds for the first through third andfourth through sixth conferee images, respectively, on her telepresencescreen to get a sense that the first through third conferees are at afirst location and the fourth through sixth conferees are at a secondlocation.

In at least some cases a system processor may use a feedback loop toadjust background light colors so that employees imaged at the samelocation (e.g., in the same conference room) appear to be in the sameenvironment. For instance, where it is desired to generate video offirst and second employees that are in the same space during atelepresence session where the light color behind the employees isintended to present a visual queue that the two employees areco-located, it may be that for their location, the background lightcolor is to be a specific intensity of orange. Here, where differentamounts of natural light appear behind the first and second employees inthe local space, a server may recognize the effects of natural lightthat tend to wash out the orange color from one video and not the otherand may compensate by increasing the orange intensity in one video ordecreasing the intensity in the other so that the visual queue is moreclearly presented.

In other cases, instead of controlling halo and other light inconference spaces so that different light hues distinguish conferees atdifferent locations, a system server may visually distinguish employeesfrom specific locations in other ways. For instance, all conferee imagesfrom a San Francisco office may have a red border, all conferee imagesfrom a Chicago office may have an orange border, and so on. In stillother cases, all images from a San Francisco office may be grouped inone sub-window, all images from a Chicago office may be grouped in asecond sub-window, etc.

As another example, it is contemplated that Halo light may be controlledto signal other aspects of a meeting in an associated conference space.For instance, a system server may use lighting effects in the Halo toindicate meeting progression. For instance, when there are only 5minutes left until the scheduled end of a meeting, a server may changethe color of the Halo light or at least the color of light generated bysections of the Halo to indicate that the end of the meeting is near. Asanother instance, in at least some cases it is contemplated that asystem server may control the Halo to animate light generated thereby tosimulate a change is meeting status. For instance, starting with fiveminutes left until the scheduled end of a meeting, Halo light may becontrolled so that a visually distinguished light “spot” rotates aboutthe Halo to indicate the nearing end of a meeting. For instance, thelight spot may rotate about the Halo once every 8 seconds to indicatethe ensuing end of the meeting. In other cases a light spot may berotated about the Halo every 5 minutes to give a sense of progressingtime to employees using a space associated therewith.

In cases where a Halo is controlled to change shape, a server may beprogrammed to change Halo shape instead of or in addition to changinglighting characteristics to indicate meeting progression. Once confereessettle in for a meeting that is to last 60 minutes, a Halo may be moveddownward to increase the sense of conferees huddling to shareinformation. With five minutes left in a meeting, the Halo may be raisedto a storage height to signal that the end of the meeting is near.

In still other cases a Halo may be used to signal other meetingattributes such as, for instance, one of several different activitiesbeing performed in an associated space. For instance, where a scheduledmeeting has first through fourth sub-sessions or sub-periods andactivities associated with those sub-sessions can be detected (e.g.,either via camera's and software that can recognize tell tail signs ofthe different sub-periods or via employee input to indicate transitionto a next sub-session), Halo light intensity, color, or dynamic effectmay be controlled differently for each different sub-session in waysthat employees can become accustomed to recognizing as visual queues tomeeting status or progression. For instance, during an introductionsub-session, Halo light may be controlled to generally be white andbright. During a substantive sub-session, light in the space surroundinga conference table may be dimmed and the light intensity over the tablemay be increased to indicate a focused activity. Near the end of themeeting, the space surrounding the conference table may be illuminatedwith a red hue to indicate that the meeting is about to end. Many otherHalo lighting effects to indicate different meeting statuses arecontemplated.

In cases where space affordance configurations are equipped to and arecontrolled to change automatically, Halo light (and sound in some cases)may be controlled to indicate that movement is about to commence as awarning for employees in the general area. For instance, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 62/205,392 which has been incorporated herein byreference in its entirety describes systems that include display screensthat can be moved about in a conference space to be used in differentjuxtapositions with reference to, among other figures, FIGS. 58, 64, 65and 68. In the '392 application, where a Halo is included in a systemthat includes moveable display screen totems, a system server may changeHalo color from white light to flashing red to indicate that theaffordances will be automatically moved within the conference spacecausing employees in that space to be aware of the moving affordances.In other cases a table or desk assembly may be automated and Halosignally may be used to warn employees of an impending rearrangement oftable or desktop configurations.

In embodiments where a system server tracks employee locations inenterprise space generally, Halo light may be controlled to indicate thelocations of at least some other employees with the enterprise space.For instance, in general, when an employee outside a conference spacethat includes a Halo is in the general vicinity (e.g., near an entrydoor) of the conference space, Halo light may be controlled to indicategenerally that some employee is near the space. As another instance andmore specifically, when an employee scheduled to attend a conference ina space is near but still outside the space (e.g., within 50 feet) or is5 minutes away from the space and traveling toward the space, Halo lightmay be controlled to indicate the location or proximity of the employeeoutside the space. In this case, when the specific scheduled employee isabout to enter the conference space (e.g., is located within 10 feet),the server may again change the Halo lighting effect to indicate thatthe employee is about to enter the space.

In a fashion similar to the way in which the Halo light is controlled toindicate proximity of an employee outside a conference space associatedwith the Halo, Halo light may also be controlled to indicate some otherimminent event or activity such as, for instance, to indicate that aremote employee is about to patch in to the conference space via atelepresence system so that local employees are not surprised by atelepresence link. For instance, where a remote employee performs someactivity to link to the conference space via telepresence, five secondsbefore the actual telepresence link is formed, Halo light may be used tosignal that the telepresence link is about to commence.

Thus, Halo light can be used for many different purposes includingproviding general area or task lighting of different types andintensities at different locations below and around the Halo structureas well as providing various types of signaling to indicate current orimminent status within an associated conference space or outside theconference space. In at least some cases where Halo light is controlledboth for task/area lighting as well as for signally purposes, thetask/area lighting and signally features or control aspects may becompletely independent such that illumination for signaling purposes haslittle or no effect on the task/area lighting functions or effects. Forinstance, Halo lighting may be controlled to compensate for naturallight differences within a conference space independent of signally toindicate meeting progression, proximity of employees scheduled to attenda conference, or to indicate when a new remote conferee is about to linkfor telepresence with a local space. In other cases task and signallighting in the Halo may be at least somewhat associated. For instance,Halo light that optimally illuminates one of eight local employees in alocal conference space for telepresence may be generated five secondprior to initiation of a telepresence link to both serve a task lightingpurpose as well as signal a changing conference status (e.g., thattelepresence is about to commence).

In at least some cases it is contemplated that special employee sensingsystems may be implemented at certain locations within an enterprisespace. For instance, see again FIG. 18 where a height adjustableworkstation includes a table top member 340 that includes a front edge2040. In particularly interesting embodiments, height adjustment of thetable top 340 in FIG. 18 may only be allowed when an employee (e.g., aperson) is within an area immediately adjacent front edge 2040 (e.g.,within a “present zone”). For instance, an employee may need to besensed within two and one half feet of the front edge 2040 of top member340 in order for height control buttons presented at 360 to beactivated.

In some cases employee location adjacent edge 2040 may be determinedusing one of the triangulation methods and hardware (e.g., accesspoints) described above. In particularly advantageous embodiments, aproximity sensor of some type may be provided within edge 2040 or in theundersurface of top member 340 proximate front edge 2040. For instance,where a camera is integrated into a workstation or is provided as partof a display screen at a workstation or as part of a computer used atthe workstation, images obtained using the camera may be used toidentify when a person is located within the present zone. Here, cameraimages may be received by a system server that then detects employeepresence and table top height control may be enabled when a person ispresent at the edge. In other cases a weight mat or the like may beprovided adjacent edge 2040 to sense a person at that location.

As another instance, referring again to FIG. 18, in some cases acapacitive sensor may be integrated into edge 2040 at 2042 for sensingan employee adjacent or within the present zone near edge 2040.Referring to FIGS. 107 and 108, one type of capacitive sensor assembly2044 may include a set of parallel wires or flat metal ribbons ofdifferent lengths that extend along front edge 2040 of an exemplary topmember 340. While shown along the top member edge 2040, in other casessome or all of the sensor assembly 2044 wires may be mounted to thelower surface of member 340 or an upper surface of member 340, ordifferent wires may be integrated into the top, edge and undersurface ofmember 340 adjacent the edge 2040 (e.g., within a channel formed in thesurface). A longest wire 2046 extends substantially along the entirelength of the front edge 2040, a second longest wire extends alongsubstantially ¾ths of edge 2040 from a right lateral edge, a thirdlongest wire extends along substantially half edge 2040 from the rightlateral edge and the shortest wire extends only along a right quarterportion of edge 2040. As shown, right ends of each of the sensing wiresmay be linked to a data bus 2062 that extends along the lower surface ofmember 340 or that is integrated into member 340 and that is in turnlinked to a system server (not shown in FIG. 107). Each of the differentlength wires may be used as an independent capacitive sensor. Thus, inaddition to sensing general proximity adjacent edge 2040, the sensorassembly 2044 may be used to sense where along edge 2040 an employeeresides within four separate zones shown in phantom at 2054, 2056, 2058and 2060.

The longest of the four wires would generate a signal much larger thanthe signals generated by the other three wires when an employee iswithin zone 2054, each of the two longest wires would generate signalsstronger than the two shorter wires when an employee is in zone 2056,each of the three longest wires would generate signals stronger thanshortest wire when an employee is in zone 2058, and each of the fourwires would generate a strong signal when an employee is within zone2060. In at least some cases an electrical and magnetic insulatingsheath (e.g., flexible plastic) may cover portions of each wire so thatsignal is only received along distal sections of the wires so that thesignal from the wire with the strongest value is more clearlydistinguishable from the signals from the other three wires. In somecases first and second of the four wires may extend from the left sideof the top member and the third and fourth wires may extend from theright side of the table top member or the four wires may extend outwardin both directions from a central section of the front edge 2040.

In some cases the wire sensor assembly 2044 may be integrated into anedge banding member that can be applied via adhesive or mechanicalfasteners to the edge of top member 340. In other cases assembly 2044may be integrated into a tape structure and applied similarly viaadhesive on the back of the tape to the member edge. In still othercases, referring to FIG. 108, a channel 2066 may be formed in the edgeof member 340, assembly 2044 may be received in the channel and a covermember 2068 banding material may be applied over the assembly 2044 toretain assembly 2044 in the channel as well as to protect the assembly2044 from impact.

In order to avoid false employee proximity detection which can resultfrom a mobile cart, chair or other space affordance placed adjacentfront station edge 2040, a processor linked to the capacitive sensorassembly 2044 may be tuned to detect a human as opposed to other typesof items or objects at edge 2040. For instance, a processor may be tunedusing empirical data generated for an exemplary “average human being”.To this end, data for detecting a human within a present zone (e.g., thearea within 2.5 feet of the front edge of a table top member) may bederived by having each of a set of persons of different body types(e.g., small, large, thin, heavy, etc.) assume a plurality of differentlocations within the present zone and detecting the capacitive signalfor each person/location combination. Then for each location, thesignals for each person may be combined to generate an averagecapacitive signal that can be used for that location as a standard“capacitive human signature”. Thus, in this case, where signals aregenerated for each of 15 different locations within the present zone,fifteen different location specific capacitive human signatures would begenerated. Where there are 15 different capacitive signatures, inoperation, a processor may be able to detect location of a person withinthe present zone at any one of the 15 different locations.

In other cases where location within a zone is not required or neededfor any reason, the fifteen capacitive human signatures may be used togenerate a capacitive signal range for simply detecting if a person ispresent in the present zone as opposed to identifying a more preciselocation. Thus, the signature would include a maximum capacitive valueand a minimum capacitive value and all capacitive values there betweenfor detecting a human in the present zone. The human capacitive range orset of capacitive human signatures are used to program the processor fordetecting human presence in subsequent operation of the sensing systemwhere a signal within the range or consistent with a signature reflectswater density within a typical human being.

In the alternative, in most cases even when an employee is locatedadjacent edge 2040, the employee moves around at least somewhat alongedge 2040 while using the workstation and that movement should show upin the signals sensed by the assembly 2044 wires where the highestsignal strength from the wires changes over time in a pattern consistentwith typical human movement (e.g., the strongest signal strength mayalternate between wires 2048 and 2050 at a frequency consistent withtypical human movement, fidgeting, etc.). In particularly advantageouscases the sensor assembly 2044 may be tuned as a function of waterdensity and the resulting signal may be considered over time to identifya movement pattern that is consistent with typical human movement toincrease presence sensing accuracy.

While the capacitive sensor assembly shown in FIG. 107 is described inthe context of a single person workstation, it should be appreciatedthat the concepts associated therewith may be employed in any type ofaffordance that includes a work surface where human presence atdifferent locations about a circumference of the work surface is to bedetected. For instance, referring again to FIG. 64 where an affordancearrangement includes first and second conference table assemblies and1014 that are split. Sensor wires akin to those in assembly 2044described above may be provided in each of the edges of each of thetables 1012 and 1014 to sense employee locations adjacent the tableedges. For instance, for table 1012, the sensor assembly may be providedwithin the field labelled 2590 e to sense presence and location ofemployees about the edge of assembly 1012.

Similarly, linear capacitive sensors may also be provided within otherelongated structures where human presence sensing is desirable.Referring again to FIG. 64, one or more linear capacitive sensors may beplaced within a door assembly jamb as indicated at 2590 a or within awall or other vertical structure like the lower edge of an electronicwhite board or an emissive surface as indicated by phantom fields 2590b, 2590 c and 2590 d.

In still other cases the capacitive sensor need not be linear andinstead may use any metal structure as a capacitive area sensor tuned tosensing human presence. For instance, in at least some cases the largemetal base of a task chair (see 2590 f in FIG. 64) may be used as acapacitive electrode where a processor on the chair receives a signalfrom the base and filters that signal to detect human presence within apresent zone proximate the base. Here, human presence from the chairbased sensor may be transmitted via an access point or otherwisewirelessly to some other system server or processor for consumption anduse to drive other system features and functions.

In at least some cases signals from a set of linear capacitive sensorswithin a conference space may be used together to identify userlocations within the space from which further detail about humanactivities and interactions can be ascertained. To this end, see yetagain FIG. 64 and consider a case where capacitive presence and locationsensors are provided in the circumferential edges of each of tableassemblies 1012 and 1014 as well as in the door at 2590 a and in each ofthe wall members or emissive surfaces that form the space enclosure asindicated at 2590 b through 2590 d (assume that a fourth wall includes alinear capacitive sensor as well). Here, the sensor at 2590 a may beused to track the number of persons that enter the space 1010 and eachof the table edge and wall mounted capacitive sensors may be able togenerate data useable by a processor to detect presence and location ofpersons within 2.5 feet of the sensor device. Here, in most cases usersmost people in space 1010 will be within one of the defined sensor zonesmost of the time and, when in an intermediate area between the sensedzones, will simply be transitioning between the sensed zones for a shorttime. Thus, at least relatively precise locations of all persons withinspace 1010 will be determinable most of the time which should besufficient for most system functions. Here, for instance, where the doorsensor is used to determine that 8 people are currently in space 1010and five are sensed at specific table edge locations while two aresensed adjacent an emissive surface 1004 but the eighth person is notcurrently sensed, the processor can be programmed to assume that theeighth person is within one of the intermediate non-sensed zones andstill present. Here, when the eighth person moves into a sensed zone,the processor would immediately detect the person and better identifyher location. Again, presence in an intermediate zone will typically beof short duration so detecting and tracking specific locations ofseveral users in an overall conference room or other space should bepossible with relatively inexpensive sensing assemblies or a set of suchassemblies arranged in an integrated pattern. In at least some cases, toavoid intermediate areas in which user presence cannot be detected, asingle or multiple wire sensor device may be integrated into a floor orceiling structure so that the sensor resides within the space that isassociated with the intermediate area between wall structures and tableto edges.

In addition to using employee presence as a trigger or condition forcontrolling adjustment of moveable affordances (e.g., limit workstationheight adjustment to times when a person is located adjacent the frontedge of the workstation assembly), employee locations adjacentaffordances may also be used to generate reports or information that canbe used by facility management personnel to assess how affordances arebeing used and to identify optimal overall enterprise affordancearrangements. For instance, in FIG. 64, in cases where a specificconferencing arrangement 1010 has been designed to support up to 8employees at a time but the arrangement 1010 is only used by one or twoemployees 95% of the time, a facility manager may recognize that twosmaller conference spaces would be more optimal. Many other insights maybe developed based on space and affordance utilization informationdetected via sensor assemblies akin to assembly 2044 in all work surfaceedges.

In still other cases where a workstation includes other controllabledevices, user presence at a workstation may be used to automaticallycontrol the other devices for various purposes. For instance, where aworkstation includes a desk lamp or the like, a processor may beprogrammed to control the lamp to turn off and on automatically based onuser presence. As another instance, where a computer and display screenare associated with and located at a workstation, computer state may beautomatically adjusted based on user presence so that the computerand/or screen enters a sleep or other low power mode when no user issensed within the present zone.

While described above as including a plurality of wire sensor devices ofdifferent lengths, in other cases it is contemplated that a single wirecapacitor sensor device may be used to sense presence within a presentzone without detecting location within the zone in a more granularfashion. Thus, for instance, where only location adjacent a front edge2040 of a workstation table top is needed, a single wire sensor 2046 asin FIG. 107 may be provided.

In order for the linear and other capacitive sensors to work properly,in at least some cases it is important that the metallic sensorelectrode is not grounded. In many cases a table top member isconstructed of wood or some other natural electrical insulator so thatthe sensor electrode can be mounted directly thereto without groundingthe electrode. Similarly, in the case of a metal chair based being usedas a capacitive electrode, the base is insulated from the ground byplastic wheels or casters or other plastic components between the baseand supporting metal casters and therefore a chair base can, in mostcases, operate as a capacitive electrode.

Referring yet again to FIG. 107, while four sub-zones are illustrated inphantom at 2054, 2056, 2058 and 2060, in some cases combined signalsfrom two or more sensor wires in the assembly may be used to identifyeven smaller zones for user location. For instance, where each of sensorwires or ribbons 2048 and 2050 generates a strong signal, a processormay be programmed to recognize that a person is present in anintermediate zone as indicated at 2051. Other software based locationdetermining algorithms are contemplated.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that a processor may be usedto drive the sensing wires in a capacitive sensing assembly throughsensing cycles to generate capacitive signals that can be used to assessdistance from the edge of a table top or from a supporting wallstructure, supporting whiteboard structure, etc. For instance, referringyet again to FIG. 107, sensitivity of each sensing wire may be adjustedto sense presence within 4 feet, then within 3 feet, then within 2.5feet, then within 1.5 feet, then within 1 foot, then within six inches,to more precisely detect how close a person is to the table top edge2040. Here, while a sensor may sense user presence 4 or more feet awayfrom an edge, a system processor may tie workstation usage or control topresence within a smaller present area (e.g., within the 2.5 foot spaceas described above). In this case, sensing within 4 or more feet,however, maybe useful for sensing presence within a larger conferencespace and to eliminate non-sensed intermediate spaces as describedabove.

Referring to FIG. 45, in at least some embodiments elongated or linearcapacitive sensors may also be mounted within the backrests or the seatstructures of sofa or elongated lounge assemblies for sensing userpresence and location with respect thereto as shown in phantom at 739and 741, respectively. Here, the elongated sensor is particularly usefulas a relatively inexpensive user presence and location sensor can beprovided which would avoid much of the cost associated with priorpresence and location sensing solutions for sensing presence an locationalong elongated furniture affordances.

Other types of presence and location sensors are contemplated that maybe mounted in or proximate work station edges and used to detect userpresence and location.

In cases where a touch screen or capacitive buttons are integrated intoa space affordance for controlling the affordance, unintended controlactivities can occur when a user inadvertently selects a control buttonor icon by touch. This is particularly true in cases where the touchscreen or capacitive buttons are built into and flush with the topsurface of a horizontal planar member that forms a work surface. Forinstance, see again FIG. 21 where capacitive buttons 400, 402, 404,etc., are integrated into and are flush with a top surface of member340. In this case, an employee using work surface 340 may rest her palmor other extremity on interface 360 so as to contact more than one ofthe capacitive buttons at the same time. In the alternative, theemployee's inadvertent palm placement may contact one of the buttons 407simply by placement on the upper surface of member 340 without anyintention of contacting the button 407 so that the function associatedwith button 407 is inadvertently selected. Here, in at least some casesthere may be no haptic or other feedback that can be sensed by touch.

To substantially eliminate any inadvertent selection of capacitivecontrols in a table top member 340, in at least some cases, sections ofthe top surface about the capacitive buttons 400, 402, etc., may alsoinclude capacitive touch sensor hardware and a processor that detectsbutton selection may be programmed to discern intended from unintendedbutton selections based on all capacitive signals received from theinterface assembly 360. To this end, see FIGS. 21 and 108 where, inaddition to including capacitive buttons 400, 402, 404, etc., interface360 also includes a capacitive surround section 2080 and non-activeinsulating sections (e.g., non-sensing circular or ring shaped surfacesections) around each button that are shown in phantom in FIG. 21 (threeof the insulating sections labeled 2070, 2072 and 2074 in FIGS. 21 and108). Here, a processor may be programmed to only accept input frominterface 360 when a single one of the capacitive control buttons isselected at a time and when the sensor associated with surround section2080 does not sense touch. Thus, if an employee rests her hand oninterface 360 such that button 407 is touched as well as a portion ofsurround section 2080, both the button 407 and the sensor associatedwith section 2080 sense contact and the processor would recognize thedual sensing action as an inadvertent button selection. Similarly, if auser inadvertently touches buttons 400 and 406 at the same time, thetouches may be sensed as inadvertent selection.

Herein, unless indicated otherwise, an inadvertent palm sensing withinthe space between two buttons or simultaneous selection of two buttonswill be referred to as a “palm selection error”. Similarly, the sensorassembly that senses between two buttons will be referred to generallyas a “palm sensor” or “palm button” unless indicated otherwise.

In some cases two or more selection buttons may be selectable at thesame time to cause various simultaneous controls where the controlactivities associated with the selected buttons are not contrary to eachother. For instance, button 408 to turn on a fan may be selected at thesame time as the table top raising button 400 but the up and downbuttons 400 and 402 may not be selectable at the same time as they causeopposite control activities. Which buttons can and cannot be selected atthe same time can be programmed into the controlling processor.

Recent advances in imaging hardware and software have made it possibleto provide 360 degree real time views of enterprise spaces. Forinstance, Nokia has developed a camera called the Ozo which includes 82K by 2K image sensors, each associated with a different 195 degree lenswhich generates imaging data that is stitched together in software toprovide images along virtually any trajectory about the imaging deviceinclude 360 degrees laterally, up, down, and along any trajectory therebetween. As another instance, Samsung recently debuted a 360 imagingdevice called the Gear 360 which similarly includes a plurality ofsensors and lenses to generate image content and software that stitchesthat content together to form seamless images of scenes about the cameradevice. In at least some embodiments of the present disclosure it iscontemplated that at least one 360 degree camera may be provided withina conference space for various imaging purposes. For instance, see FIG.109 where a conferencing arrangement 1858 includes, among othercomponents, a 360 degree camera assembly at 1880.

Arrangement 1858 includes a halo assembly 1860, a table assembly 1862and a plurality of chairs (not labeled) arranged about the tableassembly. The table assembly 1862 includes a leg support structure (notlabeled) and a table top member 1863 that forms a generally triangularshape with cut off corners so that the top has relatively long straightedge or somewhat curved sections separated by relatively shorterstraight edge sections. The table assembly 1862 further includes firstand second electronic display screens 1864 and 1866 arranged along twoof the shorter straight edge sections so that display surfaces facespace above the upper surface of table top member 1863. The third shortedge and the first through third long edges of table top 1863 aregenerally unobstructed except for when an employee moves up to the edgeto participate in a conference. In the illustrated example, anelectronic whiteboard is mounted to a space defining wall (now shown) at1868 which is spaced from the third short edge to allow a conferee tomove into the space between the third short edge and the board 1868 touse the board as should be understood to one of ordinary skill in theart.

Referring still to FIG. 109, the 360 camera assembly 1880 is mountedcentrally with respect to the table top member 1862. In the illustratedexample, camera 1880 is mounted to the top end of a post where the postsuspends the camera at a height above the table top assembly of a fewinches (e.g., 2 to 15 inches above the table top surface). By suspendingthe camera above the table top surface, the perspective of the cameracan be better aligned for head on views of employees gathered about thetable top edge as opposed to viewing those employees from a lowerperspective. While not shown, in at least some cases it is contemplatedthat camera assembly 1880 may be raised and lowered to change theperspective thereof to optimize for specific types of imaging whennecessary. For instance, the post in FIG. 83 may be telescoping so thatthe camera can be raised from a height just above the table top surfaceto a height 15 or so inches there above.

In still other cases, a 360 degree camera may be centrally mounted toand suspended by the halo assembly 1860 as shown at 1880 a. Here, again,the camera may be suspended by a post or a telescoping arm assembly sothat the height thereof can be changed to optimize for different imagingtasks.

Referring still to FIG. 109, the field of view of exemplary camera 1880is represented by the conical band shown in phantom at 1890. In othercases where the camera 1880 includes additional sensors and lenses thecamera may be able to obtain images of the entire spherical space aboutthe camera assembly 1880 (e.g., upward, downward, to any side, upwardand leftward, etc.). In the interest of simplifying this explanation,camera imaging will be described assuming that images are within theconical band 1890.

During a meeting, camera 1880 may operate to obtain 360 degree video ofmeeting activities including real time video of all local conferees inthe meeting as well as all content that is presented on the displayscreens, whiteboards, etc., that are located within the 360 degree FOVof camera 1880. The 360 degree video may be used for various purposes.For instance, in at least some cases the 360 degree video may be used tomemorialize a meeting so that meeting attendees or employees that missedthe meeting can view meeting activities subsequently. As anotherinstance, the video may be used to provide remote views of a meeting asthe meeting is taking place.

The view accessed by a remote conferee may include the entire 360 degreereal time video in any of several different formats. For instance, wherea remote conferee has only a flat panel display screen at her disposal,the full 360 view may include a ribbon view stretched across the user'sdisplay screen as shown in FIG. 110 at 1900 where the entire 360 degreeview is simultaneously observable. In other cases, the remote user'sview may only include a portion of the 360 degree view as shown at 1902in FIG. 110. In still other cases, the remote view may include both aribbon view as at 1900 and an enlarged partial view as shown at 1902 inFIG. 110. In this case, a sub-field which is shown in phantom at 1905may be presented in the ribbon to indicate the section of the full 360view in the ribbon presentation that is presented in the enlarged field1902.

In FIG. 110, panning arrows for moving along the ribbon view to changethe FOV presented in field 1902 are shown at 1904 and 1906. By selectingarrow icon 1904, a user can pan the field 1905 left to change the FOVand by selecting icon 1906 a user can pan right. In cases where a userreduces the vertical dimension of selection box 1905 to a dimensionsmaller than the vertical dimension of the ribbon view, up and downpanning arrows (not illustrated) may be provided for moving the box upand down within the ribbon view.

In at least some cases, in addition to changing the direction of thepresented FOV, the remote user may be able to zoom in and out of theview presented in field 1902. For example, in at least some cases wherethe user's interface device includes a touch sensitive screen, the usermay be able to use the well known two finger touch and expanding motionto increase the zoom of the image in field 1902. Other conventionalimage zooming interface tools are contemplated. Here, as the FOV infield 1902 is changed, the phantom selection box 1905 in ribbon view1900 may also be modified to indicate the section of the 360 degree viewthat is presented in field 1902.

The contemplated system may enable a remote conferee to view images orvideos corresponding to two or more FOVs simultaneously. In this regard,see again FIG. 110 that includes a selectable “Add View” icon 1907 that,when selected, causes a system server to present a second field 1909 inthe ribbon 1900 as shown in FIG. 111. In addition, selecting the addview icon causes the server to automatically shrink down the FOV field1902 to accommodate a second FOV field 2012 to show the videocorresponding to the second field 1909 from the ribbon view in a largerformat. Again, panning arrow icons are presented for the second field1909 enabling an employee to move field 1909 left or right along theribbon view 1900. While only two views are shown in enlarged fields 1902and 2012 in FIG. 111, a user may cause many more enlarged fields to begenerated by continually selecting the add view icon 1907. FOVs can beclosed by selecting associated “X” icons.

In some cases, a user may be able to select a vertical side edge offield 1905 and drag left or right in the ribbon view to increase thewidth of field 1905 and similarly to increase the width of theassociated enlarged field 1902 and the video presented therein. Thus, aremote user may have the ability to view only small sections of the 360view or intermediate sized sections selected by the user by changing thewidth of field 1905.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that at least certain“objects” within the ribbon view 1900 may be identified by a systemserver or processor and may be selectable by a remote conferee to accessoptimized views or high fidelity representations of the selected objectsfor remote viewing. For instance, referring again to FIGS. 109 and 110,each of the first and second flat panel display screens 1864 and 1866 aswell as the electronic whiteboard 1868 are shown in the ribbon view 1900as labeled at 1864 a, 1866 a and 1868 a, respectively. In a particularlysimple embodiment, each of the screen and board representations 1864 a,1866 a and 1868 a may be selectable via touch, a mouse controlledcursor, etc., to select an optimized view of the selected screen orboard. Referring also to FIG. 112, once screen 1864 a is selected, thefield selection box in ribbon view 1900 may move and shrink to alocation indicating selection of representation 1864 a as shown at 2100and an enlarged view of representation 1864 a may be presented as shownat 2102 for view by the remote conferee.

Referring still to FIG. 112, when an object is selected from ribbon view1900 for enlarged viewing as shown at 2102 and the selected object isassociated with a digital representation, the enlarged view at 2102 mayeither include an actual video representation generated by the camera1880 (see again FIG. 109) or may include the associated digitalrepresentation used to drive display 1864 in the real world. Here, thephrase “digital representation” is intended to mean that the real worldaffordance associated with the object selected in the ribbon view 1900currently presents visual digital output which can be presented in field2102 in the same digital form that it appears on the display screen orelectronic whiteboard in the real world (e.g., in the local conferencespace shown in FIG. 109). Thus, for instance, where a local confereepresent in the space illustrated in FIG. 109 presents output of anapplication program (e.g., a word processor program) on display screen1864 in FIG. 109, when representation 1864 a is selected as in FIG. 112,the application program output (e.g., the word processor program output)may be duplicated in high digital fidelity in window 2102 for easyviewing by the remote conferee.

Referring again to FIG. 110, in addition to objects that include displayscreens, other objects that may be recognizable by a system server inthe ribbon view 1900 may include conferees that are represented in FIG.110 in phantom, two of which are labeled 2104 and 2106. In at least somecases the server may simply be programmed to generally recognize humanbeings in the view and, when one of the humans is selected via theinterface of FIG. 110, an enlarged view of the selected person may bepresented in a fashion similar to that shown at 1902 in FIG. 110. Inother cases where a server monitors locations of specific persons withinthe local space shown in FIG. 109, the server may also track personalidentities of specific employees presented in the ribbon view. Wherepersonal identities of conferees in the ribbon view are tracked, sometype of identifying information may be presented within the ribbon viewfor each tracked conferee either persistently, for a short duration(e.g., 3 seconds) when the ribbon view is first accessed, for a shortduration when the ribbon view is selected or for a short duration when aspecific conferee within the ribbon view is selected. For instance, seethe exemplary identifying field 2110 shown in FIG. 110. Identifyingfields may also be presented in the enlarged view field 1902 as shown at2112 and 2114. Fields 2110, 2112 and 2114 are exemplary augmentedreality fields for presenting additional information about objects(e.g., conferees) within the video content.

Other information associated with different selected objects in theribbon view may be presented in an augmenting fashion. For instance,user identifying fields 2112 and 2114 may be persistently presented asshown in FIG. 110 and, when a remote conferee further selects or hoversover (e.g., touches or moves a selection icon over) one of the confereerepresentations in field 1902, additional information about the selectedconferee may be presented for a short duration about the conferee'srepresentation in field 1902. For example see the exemplary additionalconferee information at 2120 in FIG. 110 presented when confereerepresentation 2118 is selected.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that a system server mayexamine the entire ribbon view and identify interesting objectsincluding display screens, whiteboards, present conferees, etc. forwhich additional information is available and may visually distinguisheach of those interesting objects within the ribbon view or other viewsin some fashion to indicate that each of the objects is selectable toaccess augmented information. Thus, for instance, while one identityfield 2110 is shown in FIG. 110, in some cases a field akin to field2110 may be provided in close proximity to each of the confereesrepresented in the ribbon view, to each of the display screenrepresentations 1864 a and 1866 a and to the selectable whiteboardrepresentation at 1868 a. In other cases, each of the selectable objectsmay be highlighted, color coded (e.g., rendered blue like a hyperlink(see the cross hatched conferee at 2111 in FIG. 110 indicating a bluecolor)) to indicate accessible additional digital content.

Instead of presenting the full 360 ribbon view on a remote conferee'sinterface, the system server may automatically identify all recognizableobjects in a ribbon view and may present each recognized object in itsown field or window for selection by the remote conferee as viewingoptions. For instance, see FIG. 113 where a set of separate andindependently selectable object fields corresponding to each of 6conferees and the two display screen and one electronic whiteboard areshown in a row along the bottom edge of the interface 2200 at 2202,2204, 2206, 2208, 2212, 2220, 1864 b, 1866 b and 1868 b, respectively.The screen and whiteboard object fields 1864 b, 1866 b and 1868 bcorrespond to the screens 1864, 1866 and whiteboard 1868 in FIG. 109,respectively. Here, a conferee may select any one or more of the optionsalong the bottom of the interface to present an associated enlargedversion of the field content in the selected field at 2222. Again,additional enlarged fields may be added via icon 2224.

It has been recognized that at least some employees attending aconference may be uncomfortable with the notion of remote confereesbeing able to select any sub-field in a 360 degree FOV within aconference space without some indication of what the remote confereesare viewing. In prior cases where the direction of a camera lens couldbe visually determined (e.g., is the lens pointing at me?), localconferees could relatively easily determine if they were in the camera'sFOV by observing the trajectory along which the lens was aimed. Withmost 360 degree cameras, however, the camera assemblies obtain 360degree views without having to change the directional aim of the cameraso that there is no visual way to determine the directional trajectoryof a remote user's FOV or even if the camera is actively obtainingimages.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that some additionaltype of FOV indicator may be provided within a conference space toindicate remote user FOVs within the space to the local conferees. Forinstance, referring again to FIGS. 109 and 110, where a remote user'sFOV presented in field 1902 corresponds to the FOV 2230 in the localspace shown, the system in the local conference space may dynamicallyindicate the FOV in the local conference space in some fashion. Forexample, a laser writer device 2232 may be provided on top of the camera1880 that can be controlled to generate a laser outline as shown at 2230to indicate the current remote user's FOV. Here, as the remote userchanges her FOV, the laser writer would move the outline 2230 to adifferent location within the 360 FOV 1890 that mirrors the remoteuser's FOV.

In other cases, device 2232 in FIG. 109 may include a simple conicalcurved display screen 2234 where a section 2236 is visuallydistinguished to indicate an area of the conference space that isaligned with a remote user's FOV. Thus, as the remote user changes herFOV, the distinguished section 2236 may be changed accordingly.

In still other cases, the halo assembly 1860 in FIG. 109 may becontrolled to indicate a remote user's view in some fashion. Forinstance, where the halo changes light effects based on who is beingimaged for telepresence purposes, the different lighting effects mayclearly indicate remote user FOVs as shown at 1840 where a field isilluminated optimally for telepresence imaging. Here, in at least somecases it is contemplated that special lighting effects will not beneeded in cases where a remote viewer is viewing one of the electronicdisplay screens or the electronic whiteboard and therefore, remote viewindication may only be presented when a remote user's view includes aview of a local conferee. In other cases the remote view indicator mayalways indicate the remote conferee's FOV regardless of the objectwithin the FOV.

In yet other cases, a laser writer device or other light projector typedevice mounted within the halo 1860 or adjacent the camera assembly 1880may be programmed to indicate remote user views associated with 360degree camera 1880. For instance, see FIG. 114 where first and seconddifferent remote user views are indicated by laser or other projectedlight on surface 1862 as 2242 and 2244, respectively.

In at least some embodiments more than one remote conferee may patchinto a meeting and each of the remote conferees may prefer or desire adifferent FOV of the local conference space. In this regard, forinstance, a first remote conferee may want the view indicated byprojected field 2242 while a second remote conferee wants the viewindicated by projected field 2244 in FIG. 114. In this case, becausecamera 1880 can support any number of different views at the same time,each of the first and second remote conferees can be presented his orher desired FOV and each of those two FOVs may be visually indicated inany of the ways described above. For instance, both projected fields2242 and 2244 may be presented on table top 1862 at the same time. Wheretwo or more remote users have different simultaneous FOVs, the projectedfields 2242 and 2244 may be visually distinguished, one from the other,as an indication that different remote conferees are viewing differentFOVs. In this case, in at least some embodiments it is contemplated thateach of the fields 2242 and 2244 may be earmarked in some fashion thatassociates the field with a specific one of the remote conferees. Forinstance, in the case of a high definition laser writer device, thelaser device may project each remote conferee's name as shown at 2250and 2252 into the associated one of the fields 2242 and 2244.

The remote FOV indicators may be persistently presented, only presentedfor a short duration when a remote FOV is changed, presented upon someaffirmative step by a local user or any combination thereof that makessense. For instance, in one combination the FOV's may be presented for ashort duration upon request by a conferee or may be presented for ashort duration automatically whenever a remote conferee changes herinstantaneous FOV is any way.

In at least some cases instantaneous remote user views may be presentedon a portion of one of the display screens 1864 or 1866 or on a portionof the electronic whiteboard 1868 in a conference space. For instance,see the remote view representation at 2260 that is presented on theexemplary whiteboard in FIG. 115. In FIG. 115, representation 2260indicates that first and second remote conferees are each view twodifferent subsets of FOVs represented at 2262 and 2264. Here, any localconferee can view representation 2260 and quickly ascertain if she ifbeing remotely viewed and if so, by whom. Again, representation 2260 maybe persistent or may be presented for short durations at differenttrigger times when remote user views are modified.

In cases where a local conferee in the space associated with the FIG.109 arrangement uses a laptop or other portable personal computingdevice, personal notice of remote view may be presented to the localconferee via their portable device display screen. For instance, seeFIG. 116 which shows a display screen from an exemplary laptop computer1870 in FIG. 109 where a user of laptop 1870 is presented with a remoteview notice window 2300 that includes a list or tally of remoteconferees at 2302 that are currently displaying a FOV that includes thelocal conferee. Again, window 2300 may persist or be of short durationupon some triggering event. Where no remote conferee is viewing aspecific conferee in a local space, the system may automatically providea confirmation message or notice as shown at 2390 in FIG. 117 that “Youare NOT currently being remotely viewed” as a confirmation that thesystem is operating properly and that the local conferee is not beingviewed by a remote conferee.

In cases where a remote conferee's device also includes a camera so thatvideo of the remote conferee can be presented in a local space (e.g.,see again the local affordance arrangement of FIG. 109), a windowsimilar to window 2300 in FIG. 116 may be presented to the remoteconferee on the remote conferee's laptop or other device display screenso that the remote conferee knows when local conferees are viewing thelocal conferee. A confirmation that no one on a conference is viewingthe remote viewer may be presented that is akin to the message shown at2390 in FIG. 117.

Referring again to FIG. 109, in still other cases one or more dedicateddisplay screens or other emissive surfaces 2380 and 2382 may be providedwithin a conference space to persistently present instantaneous remoteviews of the local space and, in at least some cases, to identify remoteconferees associated with the remote views. Here, the remote views mayappear similar to the views shown in FIG. 111 so that local confereeshave a clear understanding of what remote conferees are viewing at alltimes and how those views are changing over time. By consistentlyproviding dedicated emissive surfaces or specific sections of emissivesurfaces to remote view replication, a system can be designed thatconferees can become quickly accustomed to and can breed confidence in aconferencing system despite the ability of remote users to independentlyselect their views into the local scene.

In at least some cases when a remote conferee acts to change her view ina local conference space, the view change may be noticed to localconferees prior to being initiated. For instance, in FIG. 114, when aremote conferee Pete Green intends to add a remote view as indicated at2243, a system server may cause the view to be indicated on as shown at2243 a few seconds prior to the view being initiated so that confereesin the space associated with the arrangement illustrated are forewarnedof the view. In some cases a tool may be provided so that at least onelocal conferee can reject a view change requested by a remote conferee.To this end, see FIG. 120 which includes a screen shot 2600 that may bepresented on a laptop or the like to a local conferee at table 1862 inFIG. 114 allowing the conferee to reject the view change. Here, theoption to reject may be provided to a conferee that is located in therequested modified view or to each conferee in the requested modifiedview that is currently using a laptop or other personal interfacedevice. In FIG. 120, the notice indicates the view change at 2602 andpresents on screen “Decline” and “Accept” icons at 2604 and 2606 wherethe accept icon 2606 indicates that if the noticed conferee does notdecline the view request within the time specified by a countdown clock,the view will be changed automatically to the view requested by theremote conferee.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that one or more localconferees within a local conference space may want to block remoteconferees from viewing at least portions of a local conference scene.For instance, a local conferee may not want remote conferees to seecontents presented on one of the large display screens 1864 (see againFIG. 109). As another instance, a local conferee that is not planning ontalking much during a session may not want to think or worry aboutwhether or not she is being viewed by remote conferees during a session.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that a conferee may beable to effectively turn off or disallow sub-FOVs of the 360 viewcapable by camera 1880 in FIG. 109 to restrict remote conferee viewingin the sub-FOVs. Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, when a sub-FOVof camera 1880 is disabled, the act of disabling the sub-field will bereferred to as “redaction” and the sub-FOV will thereafter be referredto as a “redacted field”. In this regard, see FIG. 118 where a touchscreen type user interface device is shown at 2400 for setting redactedsections of the 360 FOV for camera 1880 in FIG. 109. As shown, in atleast some embodiments, the redaction tool may include a ribbon view2402 akin to the remote conferee view shown in prior figures where alocal user can see the entire 360 degree view captured by camera 1880 inreal time. Initially, when a user accesses the redaction screen shown, adefault redaction window or box may be presented as indicated at 2404where the space inside the window is shaded and labeled to indicateredaction of the sub-FOV associated therewith. Window 2404 can be movedabout within the ribbon view to change the sub-FOV that is redacted andthe left and right edges can be pulled out or moved in to change theredacted area dimensions. Likewise, top and bottom edges of the window2404 may be selected and dragged up or down to change the verticaldimensions of the redacted area. The redacted area can be removed byselecting an “X” icon in the upper left corner of window 2404.Additional redacted areas can be added to the ribbon by selecting icon2410 to add another redacted window 2406 and after being added, theadditional redacted window can be modified by moving the window withinthe ribbon or by pulling the window boundaries in and out.

Referring again to FIG. 114, as a local conferee adds, deletes andmodifies redacted areas within the space associated with the illustratedarrangement, the laser writer in the Halo may be programmed toautomatically indicate the redacted sections of the space by projectingredacted boundaries and labels onto the top surface of the table top1862 there below as shown at 2426 and 2428. Thus, the local user can seein real time how her redacted selections limit viewing angles availableto remote conferees. In at least some cases the redacted indicia may bepersistently projected onto surface 1862 so that any conferees enteringthe conference space have a clear understanding of which space areas canbe remotely viewed and which cannot. In other cases the projectedboundaries of redacted areas may persist in a less intenserepresentation after redaction area selection is complete as a softreminder of redacted areas in the space. Redacted areas may be indicatedin other ways as well using, for instance, the indicator 2223 shown inFIG. 109 where redacted sections of the space aligned with differentsections of the screen 2234 may be visually distinguished from othernon-redacted areas, via a laptop or other portable personal interfacedevice, via indicia presented by the Halo, etc. Where a local userredacts an area to prohibit remote viewing thereof, a redacted anddarkly shaded or otherwise visually distinguished window may bepresented within the ribbon view as shown at 2450 in FIG. 110 whenever aremote user accesses images from camera 1880.

In still other cases, with redacted areas projected onto the top surface1862, camera 1880 or some other system camera may track user handmovements on surface 1962 intended to change redaction area boundariesand may adjust the redacted areas accordingly. For instance, referringstill to FIG. 114, item 2430 represents a user's hand contacting one ofthe boundaries of redacted area 2426 while the system is in theredaction defining mode. Here, camera 1880 may obtain images useable totrack hand 2430 and may adjust the touched boundary as the user movesher hand left or right. In this case, any redacted window as shown inFIG. 110 and in FIG. 118 would automatically change to reflect thegesture based redaction modification that occurs on table top surface1862.

While redaction tools and a redaction interface are described above, inat least some cases a view authorization tool and interface may beprovided to a system user that operates in a fashion similar to theredaction tools and interface, except that, instead of redactingsub-FOVs associated with interface windows (see again 2404 in FIG. 118),the interface would allow a local user to move and change the shapes anddimensions of selection windows to indicate sub-FOVs that can be viewedremotely. Thus, for instance, a user may only want remote conferees tobe able to view the first and second display screens 1864 and 1866 andnothing else within the space associated with the FIG. 109 arrangement.Here, viewing windows or boundaries would define FOVs including thedisplays 1864 and 1866 and nothing more and an interface akin to theinterface in FIG. 118 could be used to define the authorized viewingwindows.

In at least some embodiments where a system server tracks locations andidentities of specific system users, at least some users may be able toset rules for if and when then can be imaged by cameras locatedthroughout an enterprise area or at least within certain spaces in thelarger enterprise area. For instance, a first employee may simply preferto never be viewed by remote conferees and may be able to set a controlcommand causing a system server to always redact at least the sub-FOV ofcamera 1880 and other enterprise cameras that corresponds to the user'sinstantaneous location. Here, the server would track the firstemployee's location and automatically redact a view of the employee fromremote access. As another instance, a second user may not mind beingimaged via “public” cameras that are positioned throughout an enterprisefor safety purposes but may prefer not to be imaged within privateconference spaces during meetings or in specific conference spaces atany time. These types of limitation may be programmed and used tocontrol redacted sub-FOVs of camera 1880 and other cameras in theenterprise space.

Instead of providing a single camera assembly 1880 as shown in FIG. 109,other arrangements are contemplated where several cameras that areindependently mounted may be used to, in effect, obtain a 360 degreeview of a conference space by electronically stitching together imagesfrom a plurality of different cameras. To this end, see, for instance,the arrangement 2500 in FIG. 119 that includes a conference table 1862,a Halo assembly, first and second display screens 1864 and 1866 and anelectronic whiteboard 1868 that are similar to the affordances labeledwith the same numbers in FIG. 109. In the FIG. 119 arrangement, however,three separate wide angle or fisheye type camera assemblies 2502, 2504and 2506 are centrally mounted along the upper edges of the first andsecond display screens 1864 and 1866 and centrally along the upper edgeof electronic whiteboard assembly 1868, respectively. As shown, each ofthe cameras is configured to obtain a wide angle image of the space fromits perspective and the cameras are arranged to be offset from eachother by substantially 120 degrees about the associated space. In atleast some cases, each camera 2502, 2504 and 2506 obtains images throughsubstantially more than 120 degrees of arc so that the camera views ofadjacent cameras overlap at least somewhat. In FIG. 119, the FOVsassociated with cameras 2502, 2504 and 2506 are shown as concaverectangular FOVs 2508, 2510 and 2512, respectively which are shown tooverlap at least somewhat. A system processor receives all of the imagesfrom each of the three cameras and stitches the views together to form aseamless 360 view of the conference space.

One advantage associated with the camera system shown in FIG. 119 isthat 360 images can be obtained without requiring a centrally mountedcamera system as shown in FIG. 109 so that the cameras do not obstructconferee views across the conference table. Another advantage to theFIG. 119 camera system is that the images obtained from cameras arrangedalong the upper edges of the displays facilitate generally bettereye-to-eye contact between local and remote conferees.

While the FIG. 119 system includes a different camera system than thesystem described with respect to FIG. 109, all of the features describedabove with respect to FIG. 109 and other embodiments may be implementedwith minor changes in the system of FIG. 119. Thus, remote user FOVs maybe visually indicated in some fashion, redaction fields may be specifiedby local conferees and then indicated within the local space, etc.

In at least some of the embodiments described above, various types ofscheduling or schedule information have been described that can beprovided to a space or affordance configuration user to help the user orusers determine scheduling status. For instance, countdown clocks formeeting commencement, the scheduled end of a meeting, where people thatare scheduled to be at a meeting are currently located, meeting agenda,etc., have been described in the context of FIGS. 51, 71, 77, amongothers. Typically the additional conference information has beendescribed as being presented in a field on an electronic display screenor via some type of electronic output device that can be useddynamically at different times to provide many different types ofinformation or notices to a user. While the multi-functionality of flatpanel and other types of display or emissive surfaces is advantageous inmany cases, it has been recognized that driving a display screen tofacilitate many different functions at different times can be a weaknessas space users become confused as to the purpose of the presentinformation as well as to where to look for specific types ofinformation. This is particularly true in cases where enterprise spacehas evolved and grown over time so that conference, meeting and otherspaces are not uniform or, in many cases, even particularly similar sothat any information type may be represented and located differently indifferent spaces which tends to cause confusion. This is alsoparticularly true as more and more information and functionality arepacked into conference and other spaces so that users simply do not knowwhere to look for specific information types and simply becomeoverwhelmed.

One solution to overcoming the problems associated with too muchinformation and functionality packed into dynamically changing emissivesurfaces is to provide dedicated interface devices for specific tasksthat have a uniquely recognizable form which is consistent throughoutenterprise space so that once users are socialized to what the formmeans and the functions associated with the form, the users can moreeasily access the functions of the recognized form. Specially designedinterface devices that are consistently coupled to a small set offunctions will, in generally, be referred to hereinafter as “enchantedobjects” because the form of each of these objects takes on a sort oflife of its own where users can quickly recognize the functions of theobjects simply from their appearance. For instance, see the time object2500 shown in FIG. 114 that has a shape akin to a conventional clockassembly and that includes an interface surface 2502 for presenting timerelated information about an on-going meeting to conferees in anassociated space. As shown, time object 2500 is currently presenting acountdown timer that indicates that there are 55 minutes left prior tothe scheduled end time of the current meeting. Here, while other timerelated information may be presented at different times, the idea is tolimit the types of information presented so that conferees in the spacecan quickly become familiar with the functions associated with object2500 and therefore may be more inclined to use the functions thereof andbenefit from the information presented thereby. In at least some casesonly one time or clock may be presented at any time to further simplifyuser interaction with object 2500. For instance, in addition toindicating time left in a meeting, time object 2500 may at other timesin a daily cycle indicate time remaining prior to a next scheduledmeeting in the associated space, at the beginning of a meeting, indicatethe scheduled duration of the meeting or the scheduled time at which themeeting is to end, may specially indicate when there are only 5 minutesleft in the current meeting, etc. In at least some cases, the type oftime information presented may be textually distinguished to make clearto conferees the nature of the presented information. In other cases,information type may be indicated by visually distinguishing withcolors, shading, etc., where each of the different appearances comes tobe associated with a different information type. In still other casesboth text and visual indicators may be presented at the same time sothat users less familiar with the meanings of the visual indicators canunderstand information type by using the text representations, at leastinitially. Other types of enchanted objects are also contemplated.

Other height adjustable desk assemblies and configurations arecontemplated. To this end, see for instance FIG. 121 where sub-assemblythat may be included in another type of height adjustable configurationis illustrated. The subassembly includes a table top member 2630 and acontrol interface 2636 that may be included in one of the heightadjustable workstations described above for controlling workstationworksurface height. Top member 2630 includes a top surface 2632 and anundersurface 2634 (see also FIG. 122). The top surface, as describedabove in other embodiments, includes a plastic or other thin upper layerof material that is at least somewhat light transparent or translucentso that light generated below that upper surface can pass through thesurface to be viewed from above.

As shown in FIG. 121, interface 2636 includes four selectable buttonsincluding a “down” button 2640, an “up” button 2642, a “1” button 2644and a “2” button 2646. Interface 2636 also includes an LED matrix 2638that is seven LEDs high and nineteen LEDs wide where the width andlength dimensions in the illustrated embodiment are 1.098 inches and0.366 inches, respectively. Other dimensions are contemplated. Here,capacitive button hardware like that described above is mounted beloweach of the indicia 2640, 2642, 2644 and 2646 so that when a userselects one of the indicia, the button sensor hardware there belowsenses the selection and provide a control signal to a workstationcontrol processor. Matrix 2638 is for providing information to aworkstation user and typically provides feedback to confirm or warnabout workstation conditions or operations. For instance, in cases wherethe workstation provides periodic reminders to a user to change thetable top height, the reminders may be provided via matrix 2638. Asanother instance, in a case where a user is raising the table top to astanding height and an unexpected condition occurs, a warming may beprovided to the user via matrix 2638.

In at least some cases the control interface 2636 may be provided alongwith other workstation features and sub-systems described above. Forinstance, the user presence sensor assembly described above with respectto FIGS. 107 and 108 may be included in the subassembly of FIGS. 121 and122 so that user presence can be used as a condition for table heightadjustment. As another instance, the buttons of FIG. 121 may beconstructed in a fashion similar to that described above with respect toFIG. 21 so that unintended button selection when a user rests her handon interface 2636 can be eliminated or at least substantially reduced.

One process 2700 that may be implemented using a height adjustable tableassembly that includes the capacitive sensor system of FIGS. 107 and108, the button construction of FIG. 21 and the interface of FIGS. 121and 122 is shown in FIG. 124. Starting at block 2702, a workstationcontrol processor determines whether or not a user is sensed within thepresent zone (e.g., within 2.5 feet of the front edge of the workstationassembly). If a user is not within the present zone, control passes toblock 2722 where the processor maintains a dormant counter or timingdevice. If a user is sensed within the present zone, control passes toblock 2704 where the processor starts to time out a 45 minute period.Here, the idea is that if a workstation table top is at one height for45 minutes, it can be assumed that a user present at the station eithersits or stands during the entire 45 minute period after which theprocessor should encourage a change in table top height and hence achange in user position from sit to stand or vice versa.

Referring still to FIG. 124, after the counter is started at block 2704,control passes to block 2706 where the processor monitors for selectionof either the up or down buttons (see 2640 and 2642 in FIG. 121 again).If no height adjustment button has been selected, control passes toblock 2745 where the processor again determines that a user is stilllocated within the present zone. If a user remains in the present zone,control passes to block 2726 where the processor determines if the 45minute period has been timed out. If the 45 minute period has not timedout, control passes back up to block 2706 where the processor continuesto monitor for an up or down button selection. At block 2726, once a 45minute period times out where a user was located in the present zone forthe entire 45 minute period, control passes to block 2728 where theprocessor determine the current height of the table top and comparesthat height to a standard standing height which, in the illustratedexample, is 38.3 inches. Where the current table top height is below38.3 inches, control passes to block 2732 where the processor controlsthe LED matrix 2638 (see again FIG. 121) to generate an upward rowingwave signal to encourage the user to raise the table top to a standingheight. Similarly, if the table top height is above 38.3 inches, controlpasses to block 2730 where the processor controls matrix 2638 togenerate a downward rowing wave signal to encourage the user to lowerthe table top to a sitting height. Here, it is assumed that the if thetable top is below 38.3 inches it is at a sitting height and if thetable top is above 38.3 inches, the top has been at a standing height.Each of the up and down wave signals is presented for a few seconds(e.g., 10 seconds in the present example) and then is automaticallyturned off so that the signal does not persist and become bothersome tothe workstation user. After each of blocks 2730 and 2732, control passesto block 2714 where the counter is reset to zero and control then passesback up to block 2702 where the process described above continues tocycle.

Referring still to FIG. 124 and specifically again to block 2706, if theprocessor detects an up or down button selection, control passes toblock 2708. At block 2708, the processor determines if it also senses apalm selection error (e.g., senses touch between two buttons on thecontrol interface or simultaneous selection of two interface buttons) asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 21. If a palm selection erroroccurs, control passes to block 2716 where the processor controls matrix2638 to indicate a palm selection error and then back up to block 2706where the processor continues to monitor for a movement selectionbutton.

Once a single movement selection button is selected at block 2708,control passes to block 2710 where the processor again determines if auser is located in the present zone. If there is no user in the presentzone, at block 2718 the processor controls matrix 2638 to indicate thatthere is no user in the present zone and table top movement is halted atblock 2720 after which the counter is reset to zero again at block 2714.At block 2710, if a user remains in the present zone, control moves toblock 2712 where the requested table top movement commences. After atable top move is completed, control passes to block 2714 where thecounter is again reset to zero prior to returning to block 2706 wherethe entire process continues to cycle.

It has been recognized that where a “smart” workstation is provided thatincludes a processor, there are a large number of different functionsand features (e.g., height adjustment algorithms, coaching andscheduling algorithms, encouragement algorithms, environmental controlprocesses, etc.) that may be implemented and that different users mayhave different preferences. It has also been recognized that, in atleast some cases, a user may want to upgrade or modify how a workstationoperates to decrease functions, increase functionality or to change howfunctions or systems operate. For instance, as a simple example,referring again to FIG. 121, interface 2638 includes “1” and “2” buttonsat 2644 and 2646, respectively. In some cases the buttons 2644 and 2646may be programmed to automatically control a control processor to movean associated table top to a preset first upper position and a presentsecond lower position, respectively. In other cases, it should bepossible to program the buttons 2644 and 2646 to correspond to first andsecond separate users that have different optimal standing and sittingheights such that, after button 2644 is selected and while a userremains within a present zone uninterrupted, whenever button 2640 isselected the top moves to a preset lower position for the first user andwhen button 2642 is selected, the top moves to a preset upper positionfor the first user and, after button 2646 is selected and while a userremains within a present zone uninterrupted, whenever button 2640 isselected the top moves to a preset lower position for the second userand when button 2642 is selected, the top moves to a preset upperposition for the second user. Thus, button functions may be programmedto operate differently in at least some embodiments.

In some cases it is contemplated that a workstation processor will beprogrammable in many different ways by accessing an application programon a laptop or other device and selecting programming options via thatdevice that are then associated with either a specific workstation orwith the user that makes the operational selections. In cases where theselections are associated with a specific user that made the selections,it is contemplated that when a user moves about within an enterprise anduses different workstations, the user's selected options mayautomatically be provided to a workstation processor and used to drivethe workstation with the user selected preferences.

In at least some cases it is contemplated different user preferences mayrequire different sets of hardware. For instance, one hardware set maybe required when a processor only controls table height adjustment but asecond set of hardware may be required to perform other remindingfunctions, scheduling functions and notification, employee guidancefunctions, etc. Here, at least some processing and hardware will likelybe standard and required for all workstation functions while otherhardware may be function mix specific. For this reason, in at least someembodiments it is contemplated that processing functions may be dividedinto two where one processor is provided that is required generally forall table functions and a second specialized processor and relatedhardware is provided in a modular form which can be easily replaced andswapped out with one of several other module based processors andhardware when different function sets are required.

To this end, see FIGS. 122 and 123 where two views of aprocessor/functional module, a main processor module and the undersideof a workstation top member are shown. As illustrated, in at least someembodiments a cavity 2648 is formed in the undersurface of a workstationtable top member 2634 just below the transparent or translucent topmember that covers the control buttons and LED matrix 2638 describedabove with respect to FIG. 121. While not shown in detail, a mainprocessor is located within main processor housing 2650. Here, the mainprocessor would be linked to other workstation hardware for controlpurposes, driving warning and notice devices, linking to sensors,receiving power, networking, etc. The housing 2650 is generally receivedin the cavity 2648 so that an undersurface thereof is substantiallyflush with the undersurface 2634 of member 2630. Housing 2650 formsanother cavity 2654 in which the processor/functional module 2652 can bereceived. As shown, in at least some case the functional module 2652 mayinclude tabs 2660 that align with slots 2656 in the housing 2650 to helpguide module 2652 into the cavity 2654. In at least some cases, slots2656 are arranged to limit the types of modules that can be installed inthe cavity to ensure that only compatible modules are used with theassembly.

Referring still to FIGS. 122 and 123, capacitive button hardware and theLED matrix are provided in an upper surface (not illustrated) of module2652 and align with the translucent top member that forms the uppersurface of top member 2630. Once module 2652 is installed in cavity2654, screws or other mechanical fasteners can be used to lock themodule in place such that the undersurface of the module issubstantially flush with the undersurface of housing 2650 and hence theundersurface of top member 2634. Here, if desired, a user can swap onefunctional module in for another to change at least some capabilities orfunctions of the module and hence operation of the workstation.

Where a user modifies functionality associated with the buttonspresented via interface 2638 (see again FIG. 121), in at least somecases it may be that the user would like to change the indicia thatappears on the interface 2638 to match the new functionality. For thisreason, in at least some cases the indicia shown in FIG. 121 may beprovided via a sticker overlay or underlay. For instance, the up anddown arrow and “1” and “2” indicia on interface 2638 may be removableand replaceable via other stickers that could be purchased or providedwith modules are they are purchased from a manufacturer. Referring againto FIG. 122, underlay stickers (e.g., see 2662) may be adhered to theundersurface of interface 2638 top member so as to be visible throughthe top member and the underlay stickers may be replaceable by a user.By providing the india as an underlay, the stickers are protected fromwear and tear. In at least some cases the module 2652 may include lightdevices below the indicia to shine through underlay stickers to increasevisibility of the indica on the stickers.

Another module type 2800 is shown installed in the main processorhousing cavity below a table top member 2630 where, instead of providingan interface through the top surface of the table top, the interface isprovided below the table top and adjacent a front edge of the table topas shown at 2802. Here the interface provided by module 2800 is easilyaccessible from below the top member and there is no issue with a userinadvertently placing her hand on the interface. In at least some casesa user may have the option for a through surface interface as shown inFIG. 121 and an undersurface interface as in FIG. 125 where differentmodules provide different configurations even with the same baseworkstation structure.

The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as theinvention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalentmanners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of theteachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to thedetails of construction or design herein shown, other than as describedin the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particularembodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all suchvariations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention.Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claimsbelow.

Thus, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the following appended claims. For example, while acapacitive sensor assembly along the front edge of a workstation topmember is described above with respect to FIGS. 107 and 108, in otherembodiments it is contemplated that other types of present zone sensorassemblies may be employed. For instance, a workstation camera or ageneral space camera near a workstation may be used to detect userpresence within a present zone. Other types of sensors like a sonarsensor device, a Doppler sensor device, etc. may be built right into theworkstation assembly. In addition, a capacitive sensor assembly may besupported by other parts of the workstation including but not limited towithin a privacy screen that surrounds side and rear edges of a worktopmember, within a workstation support pedestal or leg structure, etc.

Thus, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the following appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A guidance system for helping users locatespecific affordance configurations for use within an open enterprisespace, the system comprising: a stationary display field located withinthe open enterprise space, the display field controlled to presentglanceable guidance information to a system user; a database storingaffordance configuration schedules and user schedules; a processorprogrammed to automatically perform the steps of: (i) determining that afirst user is proximate the display field; (ii) in response todetermining that the first user is proximate the display field,examining the first user's schedule information to identify activitiesscheduled for the first user within a threshold period of time; (iii)determining, based on the first user's schedule information, that theuser is scheduled to participate in a collaborative activity within thethreshold period of time; (iv) in response to determining that the useris scheduled to participate in the collaborative activity within thethreshold period of time, examining the affordance configurationschedules to identify at least one affordance configuration within theenterprise space that is available and that is suitable for thecollaborative activity; and (v) automatically presenting the identifiedat least one affordance configuration via the display field in aglanceable fashion as a suggestion to the first user as a location forthe collaborative activity while the first user is proximate the displayfield.
 2. The guidance system of claim 1 wherein the processor isfurther programmed to perform the step of determining that no affordanceconfiguration in the open enterprise space has been associated with thecollaborative activity.
 3. The guidance system of claim 1 wherein thecollaborative enterprise activity includes a teleconference session witha second user that is located remotely from the open enterprise, thestep of examining the affordance configuration schedules to identify atleast one affordance configuration within the open enterprise that isavailable and that is suitable for the collaborative activity includes:identifying one or more affordance configurations that include atelepresence system.
 4. The guidance system of claim 1 wherein thecollaborative enterprise activity includes a meeting with a plurality ofother users that are each located in the open enterprise, the step ofexamining the affordance configuration schedules to identify at leastone affordance configuration within the open enterprise that isavailable and that is suitable for the collaborative activity includes:identifying one or more affordance configurations that are suitable forthe first user and the plurality of other users.
 5. The guidance systemof claim 1 wherein the collaborative enterprise activity includes acollaborative conference with at least one other user that is located inthe open enterprise, the step of examining the affordance configurationschedules to identify at least one affordance configuration within theopen enterprise that is available and that is suitable for thecollaborative activity includes: identifying one or more affordanceconfigurations that include a collaborative display system.
 6. Theguidance system of claim 1 wherein the step of automatically presentingthe identified at least one affordance configuration includes:presenting a map view of at least a sub-portion of the open enterprisethat includes a representation of the at least one affordanceconfiguration and surrounding affordance configurations.
 7. The guidancesystem of claim 6 wherein the step of automatically presenting theidentified at least one affordance configuration includes: presenting aselectable user interface icon associated with a first affordanceconfiguration of the at least one affordance configurations, whereinselection of the user interface icon allows the first user to reservethe first affordance configuration; receiving input selecting theselectable user interface; and in response to receiving input selectingthe selectable user interface, reserving the first affordanceconfiguration for the first user for at least the scheduled time of thecollaborative enterprise activity.
 8. A guidance system for helpingusers locate specific affordance configurations for use within an openenterprise, the system comprising: a display field located within theopen enterprise; a database storing affordance configuration schedulesand user schedules; a processor programmed to automatically perform thesteps of: (i) determining that a first user is proximate the displayfield; (ii) in response to determining that the first user is proximatethe display field, examining the first user's schedule information toidentify activities scheduled for the first user within a thresholdperiod of time; (iii) determining, based on the first user's scheduleinformation, that the user is scheduled to participate in a firstcollaborative activity within the threshold period of time with a seconduser in the open enterprise; (iv) examining the affordance configurationschedules to identify at least one affordance configuration within theopen enterprise that is available and that is suitable for thecollaborative activity; and (v) automatically presenting the identifiedat least one affordance configuration via the display field in aglanceable fashion as a suggestion to the first user as a location forthe collaborative activity while the first user is proximate the displayfield.
 9. The guidance system of claim 8 wherein the processor isfurther programmed to perform the step of determining that no affordanceconfiguration in the open enterprise has been associated with thecollaborative activity.
 10. The guidance system of claim 8 wherein theprocessor is further programmed to perform the steps of: determiningthat the second user is proximate the display field; and automaticallypresenting the identified at least one affordance configuration via thedisplay field in a glanceable fashion to the second user as the locationfor the collaborative activity while the second user is proximate thedisplay field.
 11. The guidance system of claim 8 wherein thecollaborative enterprise activity includes a teleconference session witha third user that is located remotely from the open enterprise, the stepof examining the affordance configuration schedules to identify at leastone affordance configuration within the open enterprise that isavailable and that is suitable for the collaborative activity includes:identifying one or more affordance configurations that include atelepresence system.
 12. The guidance system of claim 8 wherein thecollaborative enterprise activity includes a collaborative conferencewith the second user, the step of examining the affordance configurationschedules to identify at least one affordance configuration within theopen enterprise that is available and that is suitable for thecollaborative activity includes: identifying one or more affordanceconfigurations that include a collaborative display system.
 13. Theguidance system of claim 8 wherein the step of automatically presentingthe identified at least one affordance configuration includes:presenting a map view of at least a sub-portion of the open enterprisethat includes a representation of the at least one affordanceconfiguration and surrounding affordance configurations.
 14. Theguidance system of claim 13 wherein the step of automatically presentingthe identified at least one affordance configuration includes:presenting a selectable user interface icon associated with a firstaffordance configuration of the at least one affordance configurations,wherein selection of the user interface icon allows the first user toreserve the first affordance configuration; receiving input selectingthe selectable user interface; and in response to receiving inputselecting the selectable user interface, reserving the first affordanceconfiguration for the first user and the second user for at least thescheduled time of the collaborative enterprise activity.
 15. A guidancesystem for helping users locate specific affordance configurations foruse within an open enterprise, the system comprising: a display fieldlocated within the open enterprise; a database storing affordanceconfiguration schedules and user schedules; a processor programmed toautomatically perform the steps of: (i) determining that a first user isproximate the display field; (ii) in response to determining that thefirst user is proximate the display field, examining the first user'sschedule information to identify activities scheduled for the first userwithin a threshold period of time; (iii) determining, based on the firstuser's schedule information, that the user is scheduled to participatein a first collaborative activity within the threshold period of time;(iv) examining the affordance configuration schedules to identify atleast one affordance configuration within the open enterprise space thatis available proximate to a first affordance configuration suggested tothe first user as a base station, and that is suitable for thecollaborative activity; and (v) automatically presenting the identifiedat least one affordance configuration via the display field as asuggestion to the first user as a location for the collaborativeactivity while the first user is proximate the display field.
 16. Theguidance system of claim 15 wherein the processor is further programmedto perform the step of determining that no affordance configuration inthe open enterprise has been associated with the collaborative activity.17. The guidance system of claim 15 wherein the processor is furtherprogrammed to perform the steps of: determining that the second user isproximate the display field; and automatically presenting the identifiedat least one affordance configuration via the display field in aglanceable fashion to the second user as the location for thecollaborative activity while the second user is proximate the displayfield.
 18. The guidance system of claim 15 wherein the collaborativeenterprise activity includes a teleconference session with a second userthat is located remotely from the open enterprise, the step of examiningthe affordance configuration schedules to identify at least oneaffordance configuration within the open enterprise that is availableproximate to a first affordance configuration suggested to the firstuser as a base station, and that is suitable for the collaborativeactivity includes: identifying one or more affordance configurationsthat include a telepresence system.
 19. The guidance system of claim 15wherein the collaborative enterprise activity includes a meeting with aplurality of other users that are each located in the open enterprise,the step of examining the affordance configuration schedules to identifyat least one affordance configuration within the open enterprise that isavailable proximate to a first affordance configuration suggested to thefirst user as a base station, and that is suitable for the collaborativeactivity includes: identifying one or more affordance configurationsthat are suitable for the first user and the plurality of other users.20. The guidance system of claim 15 wherein the collaborative enterpriseactivity includes a collaborative conference with at least one otheruser that is located in the open enterprise, the step of examining theaffordance configuration schedules to identify at least one affordanceconfiguration within the open enterprise that is available proximate toa first affordance configuration suggested to the first user as a basestation, and that is suitable for the collaborative activity includes:identifying one or more affordance configurations that include acollaborative display system that is proximate to both the firstaffordance configuration and a second affordance configurationassociated with the at least one other user.